The self’s richness grows through openness to society and object, not isolation.

Evidence

What Michael Walzer famously called “Liberalism 1” constitutes one of the great discursive systems of the modern world, making in recent years virtually a clean sweep of political theory. Only a thin definition of culture and a highly attenuated notion of collective rights is compatible with the individualist emphasis at the center of this market-liberal conception. It does not recognize the degree to which the individual is what Taylor (1994) calls “dialogic”—not in the binary sense of dialogue between two already-constituted subjects, but in the sense of its relation to the other being fundamentally constitutive of the subject, which can position itself as an “identity” only in relation to what it lacks—its other, its “constitutive outside” (Lacan 1977; Laclau and Mouffe 1985; Butler 1993). The meaningful individual life is always embedded in cultural contexts within which alone its “free choices” make sense. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 363 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The same quantity of dependence and freedom may at one time help to increase the moral, intellectual, and aesthetic values to the highest point and at another time, without any change in quantity but merely in distribution, it may bring about the exact opposite of this success. Speaking broadly, we may say that the most favorable result for the aggregate value of life will be obtained when all unavoidable dependence is transferred more and more to the periphery, to the externals of life. Perhaps Goethe, in his later period, is the most eloquent example of a wholly great life, for by means of his adaptability in all externals, his strict regard for form, his willing obedience to the conventions of society, he attained a maximum of inner freedom, a complete saving of the centres of life from the touch of the unavoidable quantity of dependence. In this respect fashion is also a social form of marvelous expediency, because, like the law, it affects only the externals of life, only those sides of life which are turned to society. It provides us with a formula by means of which we can unequivocally attest our dependence upon what is generally adopted, our obedience to the standards established by our time, our class, and our narrower circle, and enables us to withdraw the freedom given us in life from externals and concentrate it more and more in our innermost natures. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 736 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Socially prescribed behavior forms the conditions of self-emergence, not its obstacle.; Individual identity forms dialogically through a constitutive outside, not autonomously. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 363; Freedom grows by ceding outward conformity while guarding an inner core — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 736 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Individuality is produced by entering culture, not given at birth #corroborates (0.85)
• Individual identity forms dialogically through a constitutive outside, not autonomously. #corroborates (0.82) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 363
• Freedom grows by ceding outward conformity while guarding an inner core #contradicts (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 736
• Socially prescribed behavior forms the conditions of self-emergence, not its obstacle. #corroborates (0.78)
• Humans are constituted by their social relations rather than an intrinsic essence #corroborates (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2517
• Human beings create their own essence through action rather than inheriting a fixed nature #corroborates (0.72) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 27