The Era of the Individual

Book excerpt: In The Era of the Individual, the author explores the most saliant feature of post-structuralism: the elimination of the human subject. At the root of this thinking lies the belief that humans cannot know or control their basic natures, a premise that led to Heidegger`s distrust of an individualistic, capitalist modern society and that allied him briefly with Hitler`s National Socialist Party. While acknowledging some of Heidegger`s misgivings toward modernity as legitimate, Renaut argues that it is nevertheless wrong to equate modernity with the triumph of individualism. Here he distinguishes between individualism and subjectivity and, by offering a history of the two, powerfully redirects the course of current thinking away from potentially dangerous, reductionist views of humanity.