The Fight For the Individual

As the apologist of the individual against every kind of abstraction and social aggregation, French philosopher Georges Palante remains unique in the history of philosophy. This book, its first English translation, is a compilation of Palante's progressive dissection of oppressive entities and the mentalities or "spirits" that they depend on. It's a sort of advanced course in the theory and application of individualism: each chapter takes on a different head of the social hydra: education, professional mentalities, small town mentalities, the family, honor, hypocrisy, and the list goes on.

The table of contents is as follows:

1: THE ESPRIT DE CORPS
2. THE ADMINISTRATIVE SPIRIT
3. THE SMALL-TOWN SPIRIT
4. THE FAMILY-SPIRIT AND THE MORALITY OF THE FAMILY
5. THE CLASS SPIRIT, THE STATIST SPIRIT, THE SPIRIT OF LEAGUES, THE DEMOCRATIC SPIRIT, AND THE GREGARIOUS SPIRIT
6. THE SOCIALITE-SPIRIT IN DEMOCRACY
7. THE BOURGEOISIFICATION OF THE SENSE OF HONOR
8. GROUP LIES
9. GROUP-IMPUNITY
10. SOCIAL TELEOLOGY AND ITS MECHANISM
11. MORALISM AND IMMORALISM
12. THE PEDAGOGICAL IDOL: "EDUCATIONISM"
13: THE MENTALITY OF THE REBEL
14. SOCIAL DILETTANTISM AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ÜBERMENSCH
15. SOCIAL DOGMAS AND THE LIBERATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL