{"product_id":"9780195444018","title":"The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism : Hobbes to Locke (Wynford Books)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis seminal work by political philosopher C.B. Macpherson was first published by the Clarendon Press in 1962, and remains of key importance to the study of liberal-democratic theory half-a-century later. In it, Macpherson argues that the chief difficulty of the notion of individualism that underpins classical liberalism lies in what he calls its \"possessive quality\" - \"its conception of the individual as essentially the proprietor of his own person or capacities, owing nothing to society for them.\" Under such a conception, the essence of humanity becomes freedom from dependence on the wills of others; society is little more than a system of economic relations; and political society becomes a means of safeguarding private property and the system of economic relations rooted in property. As the New Statesman declared: \"It is rare for a book to change the intellectual landscape. It is even more unusual for this to happen when the subject is one that has been thoroughly investigated by generations of historians. . . . Until the appearance of Professor Macpherson's book, it seemed unlikely that anything radically new could be said about so well-worn a topic. The unexpected has happened, and the shock waves are still being absorbed.\" A new introduction by Frank Cunningham puts the work in a twenty-first-century context.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press, Canada","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48663866835179,"sku":"00000_00000_00000_00000","price":49.42,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0758\/4484\/5803\/files\/9780195444018-1.jpg?v=1781779827","url":"https:\/\/kinokuniya.com.sg\/products\/9780195444018","provider":"Books Kinokuniya Singapore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}