Louis Dumont, key theorist of the individual and individualism

Unlike some thinkers who feel compelled to declare their moral alignment with the ideas they explore, Dumont generally tries to short-circuit moralizing the subjects of his writing. This is not always possible, nor perhaps even desirable—even for Dumont—but it is how he conducts himself as a scholar and author. One of Dumont's sharpest critics, Robert Parkin, put this stance in the following way. In his work on morally delicate subjects such as hierarchy or individualism, Dumont has consistently refused to strike a moralistic pose, instead

Dumont's reluctance readily to moralize the notion of hierarchy by condemning it—part of the transgressive thrust of his work, as I have argued—is at the root of the irritation and outrage against Dumont expressed by such critics as Gerald Berreman, as we have noted.