> Have you ever heard of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Adam Smith, James Mill,
> Jeremy Bentham, Herbert Spencer? They all based themselves upon a philosophy
> of social atomism, according to which individuals in society are principally
> isolated calculators of self-interest, attempting to maximize material gain.
> This kind of thinking may not have been universal in the late eighteenth and
> nineteenth centuries, but it was a social philosophy distinctive of the
> rising bourgeoisie, especially of the Anglo-Saxon variety, and was deeply
> ingrained in what had become "common-sense" notions about society. It still
> is. Does the phrase, "ownership society" ring any bells?
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Zzzzzzzz.
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary."
This looks like a blatant acknowledgement of strategic interaction/collective action rather than some vaunted social atomism. One could go through the writings of all the other people you mention above to find additional similar examples.
-- "C'mon Mr. Krinkle, tell me why" [Primus]