The Individual

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of the concept of the individual. The Renaissance gave birth to the concept of the individual. Shakespeare defined this individual in language which accepted the primacy of the male gender: “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a God!” According to Michel Foucault, French philosopher, polar opposite of Shakespeare and backed as he thought by Marx and Freud, our century killed the individual off. But has it? Was the individual born a mere six hundred years ago and has the century tolled its bell? And what is the individual?

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Guests

• Richard Wollheim No other episodes
  Professor of Philosophy, University of California in Berkeley
• Jonathan Dollimore 2 episodes
  Professor of English, York University

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Programme ID: p0054631

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0054631

Auto-category: 100 (Philosophy and psychology)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. One view is that the Renaissance gave birth to the concept of the individual and Shakespeare most brilliantly defined this individual.