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In common speech, the word individual most often refers to a person, or, by analogy, to any specific object in a group of things. For example, you the reader are an individual person, and a lawn is made of individual blades of grass. Originally, in the 15th century or earlier, the term meant "indivisible" as still used in statistics (see below), but from the seventeenth century on the term indicated separateness, as in individualism.

In metaphysics and statistics, the word individual, while sometimes meaning "a person", more typically describes any numerically singular thing. Used in many contexts, both 'Socrates' and 'the Moon' denote individuals; 'grapefruit' and 'redness' (generally) do not. 'Individual' as a piece of philosophical jargon is much-bandied and often to be found in the company of particular -- indeed, often treated as synonymous with 'particular' (though one wonders if abstract particulars can count as individuals) -- and contrasted with 'universal'.

See also: Identity, Cultural identity, consciousness, person, atom (same literal meaning), self

References

• Gracia, Jorge J. E. (1988). Individuality: An Essay on the Foundations of Metaphysics. : State Univ of New York Pr.
• Klein, Anne Carolyn (1995). Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self. ISBN 0807073067.

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