{"product_id":"9780195444018","title":"Political Theory of Possessive Individualism","description":"This 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 economicrelations 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.","brand":"C. B. Macpherson, Frank Cunningham","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45740536332606,"sku":"9780195444018","price":1044.0,"currency_code":"ZAR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4357\/7662\/products\/9780195444018_034bf36d-750e-4c42-bd6c-dc339cdfe37b.jpg?v=1707221815","url":"https:\/\/exclusivebooks.co.za\/products\/9780195444018","provider":"Exclusive Books Online","version":"1.0","type":"link"}