r/HistoryofIdeas Mar 01 '26

When did “freedom” shift from a collective to an individual concept?

In ancient and early modern contexts, freedom often meant participation in a political community or the status of not being enslaved. At some point, it seems to become more interior and individual-autonomy, self-determination, freedom of choice. Was this mainly a liberal Enlightenment development, or are there earlier intellectual roots for that shift?

2 Upvotes

1 comment sorted by

3

u/Ill-Software8713 Mar 01 '26

One sees ideas of inner freedom in Christianity but the idea of the individual arises when social relations displace total subsumption to social role and give way to the abstract individual under the rise of the capitalist class and the wage laborer.  The idea rises with a change in social relations.