num_pages: 202
description: Colin Morris traces the origin of the concept of the individual, not to the Renaissance where it is popularly assumed to have been invented, but farther back, to the spirituality and intellectually dynamic world of Europe in the twelfth century. "Our connection with the age of Abelard, then, is partly continuous, partly a question of loss and recovery. It is also perhaps true that we have with it a special sympathy of our own. "Then, as now, men faced a crisis of identity. They found themselves in a rapidly changing society, whose stock of knowledge was increasing at a speed which made it difficult to digest. They discovered that inherited ethics and venerated authority did not provide the guidance they needed. Confused over their role in society, they sought new models of behaviour, partly in the distant past; at the same time they spoke with the voice of individual sincerity, convinced that in their personal experience they could find the clues to the meaning of the world. "In all this there is much that is common to all men, but I doubt whether these pressures have been felt so strongly by any intervening generation." -- from the Conclusion
language: English
title: The Discovery of the Individual, 1050-1200
publisher: University of Toronto Press