The Fight for the Individual

by Georges Palante, Kirk Watson (Translator)

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 each chapter takes on a different head of the social education, professional mentalities, small town mentalities, the family, honor, hypocrisy, and the list goes on; the table of contents runs as 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 “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

315 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 24, 2013

About the author

Georges Palante was born in Blangy-les-Arras in the Pas-de-Calais, November 20, 1862. He studied at the College of Arras, where he excelled in Latin and later at the Lycée Louis-Grand. He graduated in Arts from the University of Douai. From 1885 he taught philosophy in Aurillac, where he met Louise Genty, his future wife who had a daughter in 1890, Germaine. In 1907, he prepared his doctoral thesis at the Sorbonne, which was rejected. Post it, however in 1912, under the title The contradictions between the individual and society. In 1908, presents itself to the municipal elections but will not be elected. Replaces the Revue Jules de Gaultier Mercure de France, where for 13 years, wrote a chronicle philosophical. Georges Pallante suffered from acromegaly, a serious degenerative disease, which made ​​life more painful. The August 5, 1925 ended the life with a bullet in his temple.