Abstract

Jason Powell argues in this chapter that libertarian individualism reinforces a faulty notion of the self, in which one is solely responsible not only for one’s own financial success but also for combatting, on one’s own, any destructive social relations that result from oppression. Libertarian individualism denies the reality of systemic oppression, which precludes the creation of a true participatory democracy that promotes individual, social, cultural, economic, and political flourishing. Instead, Powell calls for the radical integrity of the self, a form of individualism that not only recognizes the reality of double consciousness, a condition that undermines the self, but also understands that this divided consciousness is the consequence of epistemic oppression. This existential individualism understands that one can flourish, and participate in true democracy, only when one seeks epistemic equality with other selves.