What is an individual?

If you haven't seen Bill Gaede's videos, I highly recommend you to check them out, especially those that deal with the subject of objects vs concepts. I was reminded of his videos when listening to the recent interview that Stefan Molyneux conducted with G Edward Griffin (author of the Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve), wherein Griffin pointed out that groups, per se, do not exist. We cannot see 'groups' as that is actually an abstraction of the mind. What we see is always 'individuals' that form groups.

If we look a little more deeply into Griffin's logic, we see that it does not imply that the individuals that we perceive actually exist, as individuals per se, but only that our mind perceives them as individuals. Is a human body an individual, per se? Clearly it is a collection of individual parts. Its effective functioning is even dependent on individual bacteria that we would in most cases accept is not 'human' although they live in symbiotic relationship with the human body (google gut bacteria for example).

Take a chair for example. Is a chair, per se, an individual object? Is it not composed of individual atoms (assuming we even know what an atom really is)? So which is the individual? The chair or the atom? Yes, our mind perceives the chair as an individual unit, but is that not due to our vocabulary which over time as a child has been shaped to see a chair as a chair?

Now, before you jump to he conclusion that I am trying to argue that there is no such thing as objective reality, let us be clear. The only thing that can logically exist IS OBJECTIVE REALITY, by definition. As Ayn Rand pointed out: Existence exists. See Bill Gaede for a more layman's explanation of this concept in the context of physics.

This is a fascinating topic to look at and think about. What is an individual?

Is even an atom truly an individual? We may define it that way, but what is an atom actually except a concept that we assume has objective existence?

Are objects in reality physically discrete? Or is discretion a function of the mind which perceives things as separate? Does perceiving things as separate, while being useful at times, not also lead to the danger, if one is not careful, of believing that some objects are more important than others?

Some may argue that the human is the penultimate expression of individuality in the universe, but would anyone other than a human claim that?

Here is a question to ponder: If something exists, can it not exist as some point?
If something does not exist, can it then exist as some other point (in time)?

Is reality that which can exist and then not exist or is reality that which exists, always, eternally?

So what is actually real? Is a human not a form, a collection of matter arranged and formed largely due to a preset code (with some flexibility according to the environment viz. epigenetics)?

Now, before you again jump to conclusions as to what I am aiming at here, consider this:

All objects as we perceive them are collections of matter (substance) formed according to certain designs. All objects fit within the current collective form of all of reality (i.e. matter, substance) and within that are in relationship to all other objects in reality. According to the current form of each object it will interact with other objects and produce changes in reality not only in these other individual objects but in reality as a whole (because reality is the Individual composed of all the 'objects). The more complex an object, generally the more 'needs' it has. Needs would be defined as relationships that require the input of other objects in reality in order to exist in its current form.

Under that definition, humans exist as complex forms that also, due to their form, have the ability to interact with other objects in reality and from increasing complex and interdependent relationships, and accordingly have their own specific needs.

The main challenge that I see with the individual vs collective argument is how to satisfy the needs of the human while also ensuring that its effects on reality do not come back to harm its own ability to exist and satisfy its needs.

As humans we have to see ourselves as individuals (which we are given the appropriate context) and yet also recognize our role in the larger collective. This is not to say that we 'subordinate' our self to the collective, but that we look at how our thoughts and actions influence our relationships to all the other individuals (at all levels) in reality. If we do not consider existence in ALL CONTEXTS then we tend to create consequences that threaten our own existence.

This is a challenging thing to consider, especially when our ability to gather information is limited. Fortunately with technology we are speeding up our access to information, but we must also at the same time, slow down within ourselves and look at the information within as many contexts as possible. We must share our perspectives with others in order to inform them where they might be limited but also to receive feedback in order to inform ourselves where we are limited.

Feedback is welcome in the comments below. Please share this with others if you see that it is of value.

Until next time.