Classical Liberalism Vs Individualism Essay

“Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law” (Galatians 5.1). Jesus’s words resonate with many individuals who support the growing ideology of classical liberalism and individualism. During the eighteenth century, the free market system principle of classical liberalism was emphasized. With enlightenment thinkers such as Adam Smith and John Locke, the Industrial Revolution boosted Britain’s uprising economy. Both enlightenment thinkers supported a society with minimum government intervention and allowed individuals to pursue their economic self-interest. As Britain’s economy grew, the government was able to distribute more funds in technology development. As a result, technology innovations advanced
John Locke, often regarded the father of liberalism, had advocated for men suffrage and defended his claim in the Two Treatises of Government that men should be free and be against an absolute monarch. Not only Locke fought for men’s suffrage but also many other enlightenment thinkers during the Industrial Revolution including Charles Montesquieu, Voltaire, Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill. These enlightenment thinkers encouraged the primacy of individual rights and freedoms, belief that humans are reasonable and can make rational decisions that will benefit both themselves and society as a whole, economic freedom, protection of civil liberties, and constitutional limitations on the government. However, Adam Smith, a famous economist, is the leading influence of the Industrial Revolution. Capitalist merchants widely accepted Smith's philosophy of a laissez-faire economy and the “invisible hand”; therefore leading into a revolution: technology advancements and factory industrialization. Followed by these enlightenment thinkers and individualistic ideologies, the principles of classical liberalism uphold similar doctrines of the Industrial Revolution, and it is the primary incentive of Industrial