For the sake of the whole
José Guilherme Merquior
Louis Dumont is a distinguished Indianist but his later work has undertaken to ground an allegedly general need for holism and hierarchy in comparative historical sociology. Dumont's anti‐individualist thrust, depicting as it does modern Western culture aberration, kind of social disease inviting the long run even worse cure—the nemesis totalitarianism— enjoyed 80s status classic sociological wisdom. Even those who, like new humanist thinkers France (Luc Ferry, Alain Renaut, Tzvetan Todorov) fight influential antimodern stances Heidegger or Leo Strauss, have come share strictures against individualism. This paper describes main theses latest book, translated into English Essays on Individualism, while at same time sketching liberal critique bias.
Critical Review