Individualism vs. Individuation — What's the Difference?

Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the moral worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reliance and advocate that interests of the individual should achieve precedence over the state or a social group while opposing external interference upon one's own interests by society or institutions such as the government.

The principle of individuation, or principium individuationis, describes the manner in which a thing is identified as distinguished from other things.The concept appears in numerous fields and is encountered in works of Leibniz, Carl Gustav Jung, Gunther Anders, Gilbert Simondon, Bernard Stiegler, Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, David Bohm, Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, and Manuel De Landa.

Belief in the primary importance of the individual and in the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence.

The act or process of individuating, especially the process by which social individuals become differentiated one from the other.

Acts or an act based on this belief.

The condition of being individuated; individuality.

A doctrine advocating freedom from government regulation in the pursuit of a person's economic goals.

The development of the individual from the general or universal.

A doctrine holding that the interests of the individual should take precedence over the interests of the state or social group.

The distinction or determination of the individual within the general or universal.

The quality of being an individual; individuality.

In Jungian psychology, the gradual integration and unification of the self through the resolution of successive layers of psychological conflict.

An individual characteristic; a quirk.

(Embryology) Formation of distinct organs or structures through the interaction of adjacent tissues.

The tendency for a person to act without reference to others, particularly in matters of style, fashion or mode of thought.

The process of individuating or individualizing.

The moral stance, political philosophy, or social outlook that promotes independence and self-reliance of individual people, while opposing the interference with each person's choices by society, the state, or any other group or institution.

(philosophy) The distinction of the individual from the general or universal.

(logic) The doctrine that only individual things are real.

(biology) The differentiation of tissues.

(philosophy) The doctrine that nothing exists but the individual self.

The act of individuating or state of being individuated; individualization.

The quality of being individual; individuality; personality.

Discriminating the individual from the generic group or species

An excessive or exclusive regard to one's personal interest; self-interest; selfishness.

The quality of being individual;

The principle, policy, or practice of maintaining individuality, or independence of the individual, in action; the theory or practice of maintaining the independence of individual initiative, action, and interests, as in industrial organization or in government.

The quality of being individual;

A belief in the importance of the individual and the virtue of self-reliance and personal independence

The doctrine that government should not interfere in commercial affairs