Modern individuality values being this specific irreplaceable person, not mere freedom

Evidence

In the Platonic interpretation love gets attached to a nameable property of its object, to beauty, which is conceived as strictly universal, equivalent in all of its manifestations. For us, however, the ultimate mystery of love resides in the fact that there is no single attribute which is responsible for it—as Meister Eckhardt said with respect to God, we should not love him because he possesses these and those attributes, but simply because he just is. However valuable the qualities of a person may be, feelings are attached to the unity and totality which lies behind them. … The deepest mystery of our world view, however, Individuality—this unanalyzable unity, which is not to be derived from anything else, not subsumable under any higher concept, set within a world otherwise infinitely analyzable, calculable, and governed by general laws—this individuality stands for us as the actual focal point of love — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 580 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The elaborations that the principle or ideal of individualism has undergone in the modern era differ according to the accentuation given to the first or the second of these meanings. On the whole, the eighteenth century sought individuality in the form of freedom, the lack of every kind of restraint on personal powers, regardless whether this restraint came from the estates or from the church, whether it was political or economic. But at the same time, the assumption prevailed that once men had been freed from all sociohistorical fetters, they would show themselves to be essentially equal; that “man in general,” along with all the goodness and perfection of his nature, was inherent in every personality, needing only to be emancipated from those distorting and diverting bonds. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 650 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

The later meaning of individualism—according to which the factual reality of human nature is comprised of the uniqueness of individuals’ qualities and values, a uniqueness whose development and intensification are moral imperatives—this meaning of individualism is the denial of every kind of equality. For it seems inadmissible to me to construe equality from the fact that each individual is as special and incomparable as every other. That an individual is incomparable is hardly his own positive quality; rather, this arises only out of comparison with others, who are different only in the judgment of an observer who does not find in one person what he found in another. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 690 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Individual uniqueness as a value denies equality rather than grounds it — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 690; Modern love attaches to unanalyzable individuality rather than to any specific attribute — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 580; The eighteenth century equated individuality with freedom and assumed natural human equality — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 650 (+3 more)

Related

• Modern love attaches to unanalyzable individuality rather than to any specific attribute (similarity 0.90)
• The eighteenth century equated individuality with freedom and assumed natural human equality (similarity 0.89)
• Individual uniqueness as a value denies equality rather than grounds it (similarity 0.87)
• Liberated individuals turn from equality toward distinguishing themselves from others (similarity 0.86)
• Modern love is irreducibly bound to a unique individual, unlike Plato’s (similarity 0.85)
• True equality among people is impossible due to inescapable uniqueness (similarity 0.85)
• Individuality and universal equality historically arise as twin reactions to inequality (similarity 0.85)
• Eighteenth-century individualism was quantitative while the romantic version was qualitative (similarity 0.84)
• Christian eternal-soul doctrine unites extreme individualism with universal equality (similarity 0.83)
• Inclusive universal claims arise from within the particular (similarity 0.83)
• Individual liberty has become a cosmopolitan value beyond its Western origins (similarity 0.82)
• The eighteenth century made abstract universal humanity sacred over particular persons (similarity 0.82)
• Eighteenth-century rights theory assumes rights hold even for an isolated single human. (similarity 0.82)
• Rising individuality necessarily yields belief in mankind’s ideal unity (similarity 0.81)
• Schleiermacher made individual uniqueness itself a moral imperative (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Modern love attaches to unanalyzable individuality rather than to any specific attribute #corroborates (0.85) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 580
• The eighteenth century equated individuality with freedom and assumed natural human equality #contradicts (0.82) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 650
• Individual uniqueness as a value denies equality rather than grounds it #complicates (0.78) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 690
• Liberated individuals turn from equality toward distinguishing themselves from others #corroborates (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 535