The individualistic idea of equality, i.e., recognizing the right of each individual to the same conditions of existence in societies and states - extended by the communists to the area of economic relations - was created, in political history, on the basis of the thought developed by Stoicism about the dignity and equality of the nature of all people. Christianity also instilled feelings of love and respect for every person, as a bearer of striving for moral perfection, and thereby distinguished man from the rest of nature’). These ideas and feelings were adopted and varied in many medieval sects that sought
1) “As expressed, Christ was a mystical impulse, a passionate thirst for morality and holiness. The ancient world knew examples of high morality and valor in the form of voluntary self-sacrifice on the part of individualism for the sake of what was dear to himself or his neighbors; but this morality was still utilitarian, and valor was civil; sacrificed themselves for the sake of their hometown. for the sake of the fatherland; for their sake they were moral, courageous, patient, selfless; they died for them. A completely different idea, a different feeling lies in holiness in itself, for its own sake, or for the sake of love for God, that is, again for the sake of love for holiness. This holiness represents the exaltation of a person who wants to be worthy of serving God: a person becomes pure, holy, becoming a hero for the sake of serving the ideal, i.e., for the sake of its implementation. From here arise phenomena, sometimes very harmful from a social point of view, but always worthy of respect from the point of view of personal improvement, and, undoubtedly, completely unknown to antiquity - these are: asceticism, monasticism, etc. Er, Renan.”
overthrow the yoke of Catholicism, which monopolized Christian doctrine. It was passed on to humanism and reform and was adopted by the philosophers of modern times, who believed the substantiality of man in his rational nature.
When the idea of independence and independence of the individual took hold and its claims to self-determination manifested itself in relish, in ethics, when under the influence of individualistic pressure the centuries-old building of the Catholic Church was shaken, the absolutism of spiritual power was undermined, when, then, the absolutism of state power intensified even more and became a complete guardian over the individual, then it was necessary to weld together all the accumulated previous philosophers individualistic elements in order to give a real rebuff to this absolutism. The need for such a rebuff was determined by the development of the individual, who had ceased to put up with the oppressive conditions of political despotism, which erected obstacles to the further development of her self-awareness.
And it is no coincidence that the concentration of the ideas of political individualism, accumulated over centuries, produced by the Independent Levellers in England had a relatable coloring. We have already said that religious literature, which arose in scholastic processing, remained for some time the background of all social and political discussions. In addition, the age-old political question of the dispute between two authorities is connected with this story - the significance of which for individualism we tried to clarify in the first part - and with this question in an organic connection was the question of individual freedom of faith and worship, the first link in the chain of individual rights that subsequently unfolded.
That is why it fell to the lot of the English sectarians mentioned above to assimilate the acquired elements of political individualism and attempt to partially realize them, with the help of their religious understanding of life and mood.
after all
It was they who tried to construct a political form of cohabitation in the image of the congregational forms of religious communion they adopted. The basis of the latter, as is known, lay on the basis of autonomous individuals possessing an unlimited right to freedom of religious self-determination. In the prototype of this right they anticipated the general concept of individual right. In the prototype of the agreement, they anticipated the individualistic contractual theory of the state.
But in both cases, imbued with ethical and religious considerations, which were visible even in those of them who, in the Williams family, gravitated more toward politics, they did not give their political studies philosophical and legal justifications. And the very idea of natural, inalienable rights was applied by them instinctively, so to speak, on the spot.