个人主义(individualism)
一种政治和社会哲学，高度重视个人自由。现代个人主义始自英国亚当斯密和边沁的观点，而认托克维尔（A. de Tocqueville）认为这个概念是美国人气质的根本。个人主义包含一种价值体系，一种人性理论，一种对於某些政治、经济、社会和宗教行为的总的态度、倾向和信念。个人主义者一切价值均以人为中心；个人本身就具有最高价值，在道德上是平等的。个人主义反对权威和对个人的各种各样的支配，特别是国家对个人的支配。他们都认为政府干预人们生活应保持在最小限度；政府主要职能以维持法律和秩序。个人有权在没有政府的干涉下选择自己的生活方式和管理财产。在19世纪後期和20世纪初期，随着大规模社会组织的兴起，个人主义思想的影响有所削弱。其後果之一，就是产生了各种提倡按照与个人主义截然相反的原则组织社会的理论，如共产主义和法西斯主义。但在20世纪後期因几乎全事件都实行民主使得个人主义又重获支配地位。亦请参阅libertarianism。
English version：
individualism
Political and social philosophy that values individual freedom highly. Modern individualism emerged in Britain with the ideas of Adam Smith and Jeremy Bentham, and the concept was described by A. de Tocqueville as fundamental to the American temper. It is expressed through a value system, a theory of human nature, and a belief in certain political, economic, social, and religious arrangements. All individualist values are people-centered; the individual is of supreme value, and all are morally equal. Individualism opposes authority without consent and views government as an institution whose power should be largely limited to maintaining law and order; society is seen as only a collection of individuals. Individuals are held to have the right to live their lives as they choose and do with their property as they see fit, without unwarranted state interference. Individualistic ideas lost ground in the later 19th and early 20th century, when directly opposing ideas arose, some of which took the form of communism and fascism, but they gained dominance again later in the 20th century with the near-universal appeal of representative democracy. See also libertarianism.