individualism

Meaning

Noun

• The tendency for a person to act without reference to others, particularly in matters of style, fashion or mode of thought.
• The moral stance, political philosophy, or social outlook that promotes independence and self-reliance of individual people, while opposing the interference with each person's choices by society, the state, or any other group or institution.
• The doctrine that only individual things are real.
• The doctrine that nothing exists but the individual self.

Related

Similar words

• solipsism

Opposite words

• collectivism, statism

Origin

• Borrowed from French individualisme; synchronically, individual + -ism.