The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke (Wynford Books)

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.