Individualistic Ideals of Human Development

Abstract

Different ages and societies have regarded different personal qualities with admiration or distaste. Ambition, commonly seen in modern western societies as a good quality, has been perceived over long periods as a vice; the extreme self-mortification practised and admired in ascetic movements at various stages of Christianity would have been regarded in many societies as bizarre and repulsive, and the degree of ostentatiously aggressive courage traditionally expected of young men among the Plains Indians of North America would be very hard to tolerate in late 20th century Melbourne. This chapter is a brief exploration of the influence of individualism on ideals of character and personal development: what sorts of people are seen as admirable, from an individualistic point of view?