An '''individual''' may refer to a [[person]] or to any specific object in a collection. In the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of [[statistics]] and [[metaphysics]], '''individual''' means "[[indivisible]]", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person". (q.v. "The problem of [[proper name]]s"). From the seventeenth century on, '''individual''' indicates separateness, as in [[individualism]]. (Abbs 1986, cited in Klein 2005, p.26-27) | An '''individual''' may refer to a [[person]] or to any specific object in a collection. In the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of [[statistics]] and [[metaphysics]], '''individual''' means "[[indivisible]]", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person". (q.v. "The problem of [[proper name]]s"). From the seventeenth century on, '''individual''' indicates separateness, as in [[individualism]]. (Abbs 1986, cited in Klein 2005, p.26-27) |