ILLUSIONS OF RATIONALITY - FALSE PREMISES 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 fr om ethnographic accounts of Western society but from a highly abstract philosophical tradition - philosophical liberalism. At the core of th e liberal tradition is the desire to resolve the problem of free will and necessity. The real problem for anthropology is how to transcend l iberalism. In an attempt to break through the abstract debate, one soc ial context within which persons define themselves as individuals is e xamined-a multinational manufacturing company.