{"product_id":"the-political-theory-of-possessive-individualism","title":"The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism","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,\n\u003cbr\u003eowing 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;\n\u003cbr\u003eand 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\n\u003cbr\u003esaid 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\n\u003cbr\u003econtext.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46060258820334,"sku":"9780195444018","price":38.37,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/9612\/7726\/files\/9780195444018.jpg?v=1736509071","url":"https:\/\/bookland.com.au\/products\/the-political-theory-of-possessive-individualism","provider":"Book Land AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}