The emergence of the individualist spirit in Europe is a complex and much discussed phenomenon. How did men come to switch from accepting social authority to choosing their own vision, values, aims, style, identity?

This book cannot contribute to the discussion concerning whether the roots of this individualism are to be found in ideological or social and economic factors. Wherever the prime mover may be found, what is indisputable is that when a more individualist society does eventually emerge, it manifests itself at all these levels.

In the ideological sphere individualism manifests itself in the emergence of a whole set of new theories. These explain and validate social arrangements in terms of ultimately individual concerns. Such theories emerge in a whole variety of diverse fields. In politics the emergence of the polity, and its justification, comes to be found in a contract made by pre-social individuals in their own interest: they will be safer and more prosperous if they establish a civil society, and see to its protection and the enforcement of its rules. In ethics a theory emerges which in the end equates the good social order with one which maximises the contentment of the individuals composing it, the individual pains and pleasures being added and subtracted in accordance with some agreed or self-evident algorithm. In economics production is seen as the interaction of individuals, ideally untrammelled, or minimally restrained, in the choice of contracts they make with each other, and in the means and methods they deploy.