The Development of Individuality

The Evolvement of the human species entails its Diversification, starting with the differentiation into various physical types at various locations. At its ultimate, Diversification is the development of Individuals, and, once again, I am reserving 'individual' for its literal meaning, 'undivided', and 'particular' for its common usage, i. e. 'separate', for reasons that I can better explain below. There are four main stages of development of Individuality. First, is the 'Conventional' one, in which one's conduct is guided by unconditional submission to an authority figure, parent, boss, clergyman, god, cultural icon, institution, etc. The second is the 'Unconventional' stage, in which one is a general 'rebel without a cause'. Third, following the Kantian terminology, is the 'Autonomic' stage, in which one submits to a freely chosen image of authority, e. g. Kant chose the image of a 'Rational being'. Finally, there is the 'Idionomic' stage, in which one's conduct is a development from what one has become. The latter, the fully Individual stage, is what I will be elaborating on in future posts. For the moment, to examine the earlier stages, they are all healthy insofar as they are provisional, put as ends-in-themselves, they are stunted. The first one, all-to-prevalent in current society, is plainly antithetical to the ideal of a free society. But the second one is the more problematic one, because its seeming independence is deceptive, a deception that is reinforced by the terminological problem that I have repeatedly alluded to. Someone who is, in principle, 'unconventional', lacks true independence from convention, because they still define themselves in terms of what they are trying to distance themselves from. Some of the more degenerate manifestations of this subtle dependence are Nietzsche's 'ressentiment', Sartre's 'anti-Semite', and Deleuze's 'reactive' type. Probably all forms of bigotry would qualify, as well. The terminological problem is the prevalence of the use of 'individual' meaning 'separate from', because that definition precisely exemplifies the Unconventional type, and thus falls short of the true independence of the Idionomic type. The kind of 'rugged individualism' that is promoted in American culture is generally of this short, leaving us with a Democracy that falls far short of its potential.