Political Science · Political Theory
UGC NET January 2025 Political Science
Who coined the term 'Possessive Individualism'?
AJean-Jacques Rousseau
BJohn Rawls
CC. B. Macpherson ✓ Correct
DEdmund Burke
Correct answer: (C) C. B. Macpherson — The term possessive individualism was coined by C.B. Macpherson, so the answer is option 3.
Explanation
★The term possessive individualism was coined by C.B. Macpherson, so the answer is option 3.
★Macpherson, a Canadian political theorist, set it out in The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke (1962).
★The idea is that early liberal thought treated the individual as the sole proprietor of his own person and capacities, owing nothing to society.
★Macpherson argued this view runs from Thomas Hobbes through John Locke and shapes market society.
★Rousseau, Rawls and Burke are major thinkers, but none coined this term.
★Spotting cue: possessive individualism with the Hobbes to Locke subtitle always means Macpherson and 1962.
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