ID: 57211
Authors:
Luiz Eduardo da Silva Amaro.
Source:
Gestão e Desenvolvimento, v. 11, n. 1, p. 1-13, January-June, 2014. 13 page(s).
Keyword:
Consumption , Contemporaneity , Enlightenment , Happiness , Individuality
Document type: Article (Portuguese)
Show Abstract
Individuality is a relatively recent phenomenon, result of the Enlightenment Reason and the questioning of the established order by the powers of the Seventeenth Century: the Church and the nobility. It was from the maxim Cartesian cogito, ergo sum that ordinary men tried to pass the condition of mass to protagonists of their destinies. The following century witnessed several attempts in that sense. Although almost all of them have failed, individuality became an unquestionable value, especially when related to the choices of each one. Throughout the Twentieth Century, such value led to the contemporary individualism, a phenomenon that, based on the acts of consumption, believes in the satisfaction of desires and needs as a way to happiness. This article, starting from a documentary research, including works of philosophy, economy, sociology and marketing, describes the evolution of the concept of individuality since the rise of Enlightenment ideas to the Twenty-First Century, showing that the phenomenon, before being natural, is socially constructed and today is linked to the consumption society.
