Table of Contents

I What is Individualism?.- 1: The Individualistic Tradition.- The Christian Scriptures.- Institutional Christianity.- The Reformation.- The Eighteenth Century.- The Nineteenth Century.- The Twentieth Century.- Concluding Comments.- Endnotes.- II: Individualistic Ideals of Human Development.- Autonomy in Action.- Autonomy in Belief.- Concluding Comments.- Endnotes.- III: Alternatives to Individualism.- Gentile on the Individual and Society.- Other Anti-individualistic Viewpoints.- Autonomy in Belief or Basic Rationality?.- Endnotes.- IV: Three Approaches to Individualism: Sumner, Rogers, Dewey.- William Graham Sumner.- The Individual as the Centre of Value.- Individual Creativity.- Social Darwinism.- The Inversion of Individualistic Values.- Carl Rogers.- The Autonomous Individual.- What Sort of Individualist?.- Common Ground Shared by Rogers and Sumner.- John Dewey.- Dewey's Attack on Dualisms.- Dewey's Criticism of Traditional Individualism.- An Acceptable Individualism.- Reconciliation or Rejection.- Endnotes.- II Individualism in Recent Western Educational Theory.- V: Analytic Philosophy of Education.- Peters on the Concept of Education.- Peters on Autonomy.- Scheffler on the Concept of Teaching.- The Concept of Indoctrination.- Conclusion.- Endnotes.- VI: The Popular Radicals.- Carl Rogers.- Ivan Illich.- John Holt.- The Difference between Conservative and Radical Individualists.- A Possible Exception.- Endnotes.- VII: Piaget and the Study of Child Development.- Piaget's Developmental Theory.- Piaget's Individualism.- Criticism of Piaget.- Concluding Comments.- Endnotes.- VIII: Limits to Individualism.- Ontological Individualism in a General Perspective.- Limits to Autonomy.- Limits to Social Determinism.- Epistemologies as Social Programmes.- Ontological Individualism in an Educational Context.- Normative Individualism in a General Perspective.- The Drift towards Egoism.- Normative Individualism in an Educational Perspective.- Endnotes.- IX: The Alternatives and their Limits.- The Collectivist Alternative.- A Feminist Alternative.- In Praise of Ideological Inconsistency.- Endnotes.