In the final chapter of C.B. MacPherson’s seminal book, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, he identifies seven assumptions that undergird the theory of a liberal democratic society. Most notable, he identifies how “freedom from the will of others” is the defining feature of humanity and that this “freedom” is understood to be the capacity to own oneself. As he aptly states, in proposition three, “The individual is essentially the proprietor of his own person and capacities, for which he owes nothing to society.” Yet, with this negative version of freedom as the definition of the human, it begs the question of who exactly can occupy this position of freedom and thus, who can count as human. Rather than taking this idea of “freedom” to be an ideological ruse, we explore what it produces. Thus, one asks: where are the places where a “possessive individual” can be free from (an)Other? What are the historical and social conditions that maintain this freedom of the “possessive individual”? How does this “freedom” maintain those socio-political conditions?
In this course, then, we will inquire on the “possessive individual” and its “freedom(s),” tracing it through the organization of a liberal democratic social order and its necessary entanglements in the regulation of subjects. We will take C.B. MacPherson’s account as our starting point and move out to its wider imbrication in the organization of the state, the law, civil society, the family, and capital. Concomitantly, we see how each of these domains are predicated upon and reproduces forms of subjection in and through race, class, gender, and sexuality. Geographically, this inquiry will be situated in a U.S. context and historically begins in Reconstruction and moves onward. Ultimately, what compels this inquiry is two questions: 1) what is the historical and theoretical legacy of “possessive individualism” in the U.S.? 2) And what is its status in the contemporary neoliberal moment?
In order to develop this line of inquiry, we will work through a number different disciplinary methods and accounts, from political theory, cultural studies, history, literary analysis, and political economy. Also, we will examine a couple cultural text in, which will include Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Nella Larson’s Passing, Malcom X and Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Paul Beatty’s The White Boy Shuffle, and some episodes of Season 4 of The Wire.