AND INDIVIDUALISM IN NORBERT ELIAS

Abstract

The essay, theoretical in nature, discusses the concepts of individual and individualism in Norbert Elias. To this end, three objectives are pursued: - starting from the works The court society, The civilizing process, and The society of individuals, we discuss the concept of figuration, Eliasian conceptual solution to the antithetical pair individual and society; - Mozart, sociology of a genius is used as a case study in which the genius is seen in his figuration, interdependent relations and social constraints; - finally, thinking with and from Elias, we put forward the understanding of individualism as individual and social habitus, a formulation that indicates the radicality of the concept of figuration, which affirms society as the formation of interdependent individuals, despite the individual or social perception of possible autonomy, interdependence consisting of an empirical and ontological question.