Individuals, Responsibility, and Liberty: Wilhelm von Humboldt and Alexis de Tocqueville
ABSTRACT
This conference explored two very different understandings of individualism, as presented in Humboldt’s The Limits of State Action and Tocqueville's Democracy in America. These texts were used to investigate the extent to which individualism is the very essence of a free society (with individualism understood as individual self-development) and the extent to which individualism might pose a threat to a free society (with individualism understood as isolation and atomization).
READING LIST
Conference Readings
Humboldt, Wilhelm von. The Limits of State Action. Edited by J. W. Burrow. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 1993.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America: (Bilingual Edition). Edited by Eduardo Nolla. Translated by James T. Schleifer. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2010.