Individual: From an Inseparable Corporate Body to a Separate Single Person Re: power

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>At 01:41 PM 12/06/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>>It is exactly this insistence on the obdurate reality of 
>>"subjectivity" that intrigues me.  The idea that people have unique 
>>subjectivities emerged in specific societies at specific points in 
>>human history; it is not simply human nature to conceptualize 
>>"subjectivities".  To me, it's no coincidence that the insistence 
>>on the value and importance of subjectivity is most extreme in 
>>hypercapitalist societies like the U. S.  To coin a hyperbolic 
>>slogan: capitalism produces subjectivities.  Like most of the 
>>effects of capitalism, there are good and bad things about this.
>
>...and even more interesting,  "subjectivity" always emerges as a 
>holy relic -- that which must never be subverted by any form of 
>authority or power...and which is wholly identified with individual 
>experience. It sounds OK on the face of it, but the other dimension 
>of "subjectivity" -- that humanity and its needs which we all hold 
>in common-- is completely disappeared from this libertarian form of 
>spirituality.
>
>You get to be who you are provided you relinquish all links to 
>everyone else. A bad bargain, I'd say.
>
>Joanna

It's fascinating to look at the obsolete meanings of the word "individual":

*****   1. One in substance or essence; forming an indivisible 
entity; indivisible. Obs.

c1425 Found. St. Bartholomew's (E.E.T.S.) II To the..glorie of the 
hye and indyuyduall Trynyte. a1619 M. FOTHERBY Atheom. I. vii. §I 
(1622) 50 Some make their god of Atomes, and indiuidual moates: some 
of diuidual numbers; as Epicurus, and Pythagoras. 1623 WHITBOURNE 
Newfoundland 56 In the name of the holy and indiuiduall Trinitie. 
1641 MILTON Animadv. ii, This untheologicall Remonstrant would divide 
the individuall Catholicke Church into severall Republicks. 1678 
CUDWORTH Intell. Syst. I. iv. §36. 611 It would be liable to 
misinterpretation, and to be taken, in the Sabellian sense, for that 
which hath one and the same singular and individual essence.

2. That cannot be separated; inseparable. Obs.

c1600 Timon I. ii. (1842) 6 Where ere thou go'st I still will folowe 
thee An indiuiduall mate. 1623 COCKERAM, Indiuiduall, not to bee 
parted, as man and wife. c1645 HOWELL Lett. I. III. ix, He..is an 
individual Companion to the King. 1667 MILTON P.L. IV. 486 To have 
thee by my side Henceforth an individual solace dear.

<http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00115504>   *****

As you can see above, the older and now obsolete meanings of the word 
"individual" signified _two or more_ persons or entities being 
_indivisible or inseparable from one another_.  In other words, they 
were the _opposite_ of the newer meanings of the word that are now 
familiar to us -- "numerically one, pertaining to a single person or 
thing, separate and distinct from others, marked by a peculiar and 
striking character, etc.":

*****   3. a. Existing as a separate indivisible entity; numerically 
one, single.  b. Single, as distinct from others of the same kind; 
particular, special. Also absol. in phr. in the individual, in the 
particular case: opposed to in the general (GENERAL a. 11d)....

4. Distinguished from others by attributes of its own; marked by a 
peculiar and striking character.

1646 SIR T. BROWNE Pseud. Ep. I. V. 19 A man should be something that 
men are not, and individuall in somewhat beside his proper nature. 
1894 Harper's Mag. Mar. 494 He is so quaint and so individual in his 
views. 1897 Brit. Weekly 27 May 97 In him Nonconformity has lost one 
of her most conspicuous and individual figures.

5. a. Of, pertaining or peculiar to, a single person or thing, or 
some one member of a class; characteristic of an individual.

<http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00115504>   *****

Here's an example of the newer meanings of the word from OED: "1646 
SIR T. BROWNE Pseud. Ep. I. V. 19 A man should be something that men 
are not, and individuall in somewhat beside his proper nature" (@ 
<http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00115504>).

What a remarkable trace of the history of alienation in a word!

Cf. Peter Stallybrass, "Shakespeare, the Individual, and the Text," 
_Cultural Studies_, eds. Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, & Paula 
Treichler, (NY: Routledge, 1992), pp. 593-610.
-- 
Yoshie

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