The individual as historical agent

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Top 100 Influential People
A discussion from the PhilOfHi list, October 1998. Portions of a discussion touching upon a variety of issues, including the great man theory of history.
Social Change and Human Nature
By Will Miller, 30 November 1998. Human nature represented as seizing upon opportunities offered by the marketplace of options is here criticized. The issue is not human nature, but the kind of system within which humans must act.
Influence/founders/propagators
A dialog from the PhilOfHi list, November 1998. The question of how we recognize historical greatness. The suggestion that it is a function of being a necessary condition for an important historical change. This suggestion is criticized as well as the alternative view that it all depends on the circumstance of action.
The Decisive Role of the Individual in History
By Rob Sewell, In Defense of Marxism, 9 December 2005. It is the task of Marxism to uncover the dialectical relationship between the individual (the subjective) and the great forces (objective) that govern the movement of society. Historical materialism does not dismiss the role of the individual, of personality, in history, but sees this role in its historical context.