Individuals and Individuality

Individuals and Individuality criticizes Hegel’s theory of dialectic for eliminating the possibility of irreducible individuality. The argument then goes on to defend and expand Peirce’s theory of firstness, secondness, and thirdness as a more nearly adequate account of individuality. The discussion culminates with an interpretation of art as illustrating the essence of individuality.

Brian Martine lays a foundation for a more complex discussion of what it means to be individual. This book provides an elegant account of the nature of the individual, without reducing it to a cluster of universals or claiming that it is a bare particular that must be acknowledged but never articulated. Martine gets in between universality and individuality in both a sensitive and responsible fashion.