Illusions of Rationality: False Premisses of the Liberal Tradition

Anthropology assumes there is some substance to the idea that Western society is composed of 'individuals'. The assumption is not derived from ethnographic accounts of Western society but from a highly abstract philosophical tradition-philosophical liberalism. At the core of the liberal tradition is the desire to resolve the problem of free will and necessity. The real problem for anthropology is how to transcend liberalism. In an attempt to break through the abstract debate, one social context within which persons define themselves as individuals is examined-a multinational manufacturing company.