INDIVIDUALISM.  The concept of individualism appeared first in France after the French Revolution, when the word indivdualisme began to be used by socialists, liberals, and also reactionaries to describe what they regarded as the evil, antisocial impulses of self-interest. In its first appearances in English, “individualism” referred to the egalitarian social philosophy exemplified in the United States. Probably the first use of the word in English was in an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson written in 1835. The Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville used the word in volume 2 of his Democracy in America (English translation, 1840) in a pejorative sense, implying a threat to society akin to selfishness (egoism). Emerson and other Americans, however, intended it in a positive sense, to mean an optimistic faith in the primacy of the individual.

个人主义。个人主义的概念首次出现在大革命后的法国，当时个人主义这个词开始是由社会主义者，自由主义者，还有反动派用来描述他们认为是邪恶的、反社会的利已冲动。它第一次出现在英语中，“个人主义”指的是以美国为代表的平等主义的社会哲学。或许在英语中第一次使用这个词是在拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生在1835年写作的随笔中。法国人亚历西斯·德·托克维尔在他的《论美国的民主》（英语译本，1840年）两卷本中使用过这个带有贬义的词，意味着对社会的一种的威胁，类似于自私（利己主义）。然而，爱默生和其他美国人有意用它的积极意义，意思是一种个人至上的乐观信念。

Since the introduction of the word into the English language, there have been two ways of defining its meaning. One has been to construct an ideal definition and then relate to it a wide variety of figures and intellectual movements, whether or not they used the term. The second has been to define the word as its different meanings have developed historically in actual usage.

自从将该词引入英语语言以来，确定其含义有两种方法。一种是构建一种理想的定义，然后将它与各种人物和智力运动结合起来，无论他们是否使用过该术语。第二种是确定该词在实际使用中历史上发展的含义。

Ideal Definition.  The first procedure defines individualisms as a doctrine that asserts the supreme value of the individual and sees society as only a means to the satisfaction of individual ends. This doctrine implies a theory of human nature in which the individual is the source of moral value—competent to judge the effects of his own actions—and a theory of polities requiring freedom from coercion by authority, whether tradition, church, or state. Various intellectual movements may be associated with the word to the degree that they embody this ideal meaning. These include ancient Epicurean thought; the Judeo-Christian tradition with its emphasis on the worth of the individual; the assertive self-confidence of Renaissance Europe; the Protestant Reformation; the middle-class liberalism of John Locke; and the laissez-faire economic philosophy of Adam Smith. Individualism in this ideal sense is placed in contrast to collectivism. The main difficulty with this procedure is that it masks the complexity of the historical meanings of the idea of individualism.

理想的定义。第一个步骤是将个人主义定义为一种学说，即维护个人的最高价值，并将社会看成是满足个人目的的唯一手段。这种学说暗示了一种人类本性理论，其中个体是道德价值的来源—有能力判断他自己行为的影响—并要求自由而不受权威强迫的政治理论，无论是传统、教会还是国家。各种知识分子运动可能与该词有关，在某种程度上他们体现了这一理想的含义。这些包括了古代伊壁鸠鲁的哲学思想；犹太教-基督教传统强调的个人价值；约翰·洛克的中产阶级自由主义；以及亚当·斯密的自由放任的经济哲学。在这种理想意义上的个人主义是与集体主义相对立的。这个过程的主要困难是它掩盖了个人主义理念历史含义的复杂性。

Historical Meanings.  The affirmation of individualism appeared first in the United States, where the word meant more than classical liberal politics or the freedom to pursue economic advantage. Individual rested on belief in a natural moral order that made the artificial order of society unnecessary, and on the trust that each individual would internalize the demand of morality and justice and thus direct his life free from the restrictions of all sanctions beyond his unaided self. As it was stated by Emerson, “Government will be adamantine without any governor.”

历史含义。对个人主义的维护首先出现在美国，在美国，这个词不只是意味着古典自由主义的政治学，还有追求经济利益的自由。个人依赖于一种自然的道德秩序，而使人为的社会秩序没有了必要，以及依靠信任，因而每个个人会内化道德与正义的需求，从而引导其生活超越他无助的自我，摆脱所有制裁的限制。就像爱默生说的那样“没有了管理者的政府就会坚不可摧”。

Yet individualism was a social ideology. It took a particular kind of society to develop an ideal that denied the importance of society. The conditions of rapid change and physical and social mobility required that each person be the bearer of his own meaning and the source for his own direction. But social and economic change, itself expedited by the ideal of individualism, led to a change in its meaning.

然而，个人主义是一种社会意识形态。这需要一种特殊的社会才能发展出否定社会重要性的理想。迅速变化的条件与物质、社会的流动性需要每个人都是他自己意义的承载者和他自己方向的来源。但社会和经济的变化，本身就是由个人主义理想促进的，它导致了其意义的变化。

The growth of social organization and the interdependence of men in a complex society led to a shift away from individualism as freedom from restraint to individualism as the realization of self through participation in society. Freedom of the individual became freedom to do what was good for society. The modern meaning of individualism is not in opposition to collectivism. Indeed, one may discern it in Marxist ideology, in the writing of American liberals such as Herbert Croly, and in the ethical and social thought of John Dewey.

在复杂的社会中，社会组织的增长与人们的相互依赖导致了从不受约束的个人主义自由到通过参与社会，自我实现的个人主义转变。个人的自由变成了有益于社会的自由。个人主义的现代含义并不反对集体主义。实际上，人们可以在马克思主义的意识形态中，在美国自由主义者赫伯特·克罗利的著作中，以及在约翰·杜威的伦理和社会思想中看到这点。

The ideal of individualism, originally anarchistic, has come to mean the opposite—self-realization through participation in a greater entity. It remains to be seen whether the sense of primacy of the individual may still be realized in the complex conditions of modern life.

个人主义的理想，最初是无政府主义的，现已变成了相反的意思---通过参与更大的实体实现自我。在现代生活复杂的条件下，个人至上的意识是否仍有可能实现还有待观察。

                                       JOHN WILLIAM WARD

                                          Amherst College

                                       2023年2月23日译

（译者注：该词条位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第15卷，第69页）