Although there are many differences among various Individualists, yet they agree on certain basic principles of their philosophy. These are as follows:
State is a necessary eviL First of ail, the Individualists, like the Anarchists, believe that the State is an evil. But, unlike the Anarchists, they regard it as a necessary evil. It is necessary because men are selfish, egoistic, aggressive and violent and have, therefore, to be prevented from doing harm to each other. As Spencer said, the State exists because crime exists; and it will cease to exist, when men will become peaceful and moral.
Functions of the State are merely negative, and restricted. As the government is a necessary evil, the sphere of its activity and power should be restricted to the narrowest possible limits, because thus alone the individual can enjoy maximum liberty. Where there is law necessarily restricts liberty of the individual. Every extension of the State’s power limits the freedom of the individual. Hence its functions should be confined to the necessary minimum of preventing and punishing crimes. The State can interfere in individual life only to prevent interference by other individuals. The functions of the State are merely negative, that is, to hinder crime, preserve peace, and maintain contract. The State docs not exist for the promotion of individual happiness or common good. It exists “merely because crime exists and its principal function, therefore, is to protect and restrain, not to foster and promote.”
The individual is the end, the State is a means. Unlike the Idealists, the Individualists emphasise the primary role of the individual in the society and State. The individual and his happiness are real, and the State is a means to them. Individuals make the society: the happiness and well-being of the individuals is the social well-being. The State has no life of its own beside the life and happiness of the individuals composing it.
Individual has full liberty and rights to live as he thinks best. Lastly, as the individual is the centre of all social life, it is “for him and by him that the whole social structure exists and derives its being.” The individual should, therefore, be left free to do whatever he likes, in order to develop his personality and seek his good. He is the best judge of his own interests. “The only freedom which deserves the name,” writes Mill, “is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others, or impede their own efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to them, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest”