The eighteenth century made abstract universal humanity sacred over particular persons

Evidence

By freeing individuality from every restriction and special determination, and hence by making perpetually identical individuality—man in the abstract—the ultimate substance of personality, this era simultaneously elevated that abstraction to the ultimate value of personality. A man, says Kant, is certainly profane, but the mankind in him is sacred. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 532

Categorization

• QUESTION: Simmel is about to pivot to a third individualism (the one he favors — Romantic/uniqueness-within-commonality). The essay’s typology may be useful for framing the flâneur reading.
• XREF: connects to: The eighteenth century equated individuality with freedom and assumed natural human equality — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 650; Individuality and universal equality historically arise as twin reactions to inequality — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 687; Christian eternal-soul doctrine unites extreme individualism with universal equality — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 693 (+12 more)

Related

• The eighteenth century equated individuality with freedom and assumed natural human equality (similarity 0.88)
• Eighteenth-century humanists exaggerated Jewish foreignness to prove universal humanity (similarity 0.88)
• True equality among people is impossible due to inescapable uniqueness (similarity 0.83)
• Christian eternal-soul doctrine unites extreme individualism with universal equality (similarity 0.83)
• Eighteenth-century thought held races varied but humanity unified (similarity 0.83)
• Modern individuality values being this specific irreplaceable person, not mere freedom (similarity 0.82)
• Individuality and universal equality historically arise as twin reactions to inequality (similarity 0.82)
• Eighteenth-century individualism was quantitative while the romantic version was qualitative (similarity 0.82)
• Schleiermacher made individual uniqueness itself a moral imperative (similarity 0.81)
• Liberated individuals turn from equality toward distinguishing themselves from others (similarity 0.81)
• Eighteenth-century rights theory assumes rights hold even for an isolated single human. (similarity 0.80)
• Nineteenth-century Europe traded Enlightenment universalism for imperialist superiority (similarity 0.80)
• Individual liberty has become a cosmopolitan value beyond its Western origins (similarity 0.79)
• Rising individuality necessarily yields belief in mankind’s ideal unity (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The eighteenth century equated individuality with freedom and assumed natural human equality #expands (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 650
• Enlightenment universalism made racial exclusion the sole unjustifiable barrier to free-colored citizenship #exemplifies (0.60)
• Eighteenth-century thinkers believed in one universal French-inspired civilization. #expands (0.60)
• Nineteenth-century Europe traded Enlightenment universalism for imperialist superiority #responds-to (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 119
• Individuality and universal equality historically arise as twin reactions to inequality #qualifies (0.50) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 687
• Christian eternal-soul doctrine unites extreme individualism with universal equality #complicates (0.50) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 693
• Enlightenment fantasies of foreign monsters persisted well into the eighteenth century #complicates (0.50)
• True equality among people is impossible due to inescapable uniqueness #contradicts (0.50) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 187
• Enlightenment rationalism generated new monsters instead of eradicating them #complicates (0.50) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 352
• Enslaved people were human beings despite slavery’s alterations of their being #exemplifies (0.50)