Emma Rixhon - Philosophy
To what extent are acts of individual rebellion necessary for social progress?
they belong to and its willingness to progress. This means that the specific
progress the rebel is hoping to attain must already be a concern of the society
they belong to in order for the rebellion to be successful. If individual acts of
rebellion do not directly result in social progress, and they require a certain
prior acceptance from their society, then it is impossible to say that they are
either necessary or sufficient for social progress. The most that can be
confidently said of these acts is that they are catalysts for social improvement.
However, individuality or a sense of identity other than solely being a
functioning part of society must be present for one to bring about social
progress. The implication of this conclusion is that what is necessary for
development is not individual acts of rebellion rather than a prominent sense of
self-worth in individual members of society.
Nevertheless,
according
to
Rousseau’s
General
Will
“a
sense
of
common
interest” 23 is necessary for the development of society as it facilitates the
government
to
act
for
the
good
of
“the
community
of
citizens” 24 . In this way, a
society of herd-men is positive as it enables the government to further their
development in a way which supports the grand majority of people. This is only
possible in a population which has conformists desiring the same goals for their
society, and therefore may be an adequate counter-argument for individualism,
where governments are struggling to satisfy multiple
individuals’
demands
for
progress. Kierkegaard,
however,
refutes
this
concept
by
declaring
that
“the
crowd
is
untruth” 25 , meaning that individual truthful thought can only be true in
its individuality. As soon as truth is brought into a group, even by individuals
who
each
“possess
the
truth
in
private”, 26 it is turned into untruth by giving the
inauthenticity of collaboration importance. This would mean that social change
brought about in any way other than individual rebellion would be inauthentic,
as it would be fuelled by “untruth”. Furthermore, this suggests that progress,
possibly getting closer to the truth, needs to be an organic process individually
Foisneau, L. 2010
ibid.
25 Kierkegaard, S.
26 ibid.
23
24
216
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