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. (Abbs 1986, cited in Klein 2005, p.26-27)

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'.

References

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• 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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RT @JohnnaS: When you accept your own truth, then you become the individual that you are supposed to be. http://bit.ly/d43nL
saskfan (saskfan) Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:36:36 -0000
RT @JohnnaS: When you accept your own truth, then you become the individual that you are supposed to be. http://bit.ly/d43nL
has a blast from the past... http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=24318593
mightytomwhitey (mightytomwhitey) Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:35:43 -0000
has a blast from the past... http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=24318593
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=101641633
PDCross (Treiz Cross) Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:35:01 -0000
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=101641633
New post: Individual Life Insurance Plans (http://cli.gs/sgDA4) http://cli.gs/sgDA4
hass67 (hass67) Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:34:34 -0000
New post: Individual Life Insurance Plans (http://cli.gs/sgDA4) http://cli.gs/sgDA4
#campuscrime Court rules search by BC police legal - Boston Globe: In a decision that troubled some individual-righ... http://bit.ly/7tkcDc
Kstatecrimenews (TCK) Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:32:25 -0000
#campuscrime Court rules search by BC police legal - Boston Globe: In a decision that troubled some individual-righ... http://bit.ly/7tkcDc
"Training any athlete for success means identifying & nurturing the emergent properties within the individual". Excerpt from my new book-THT
thomasherding (Thomas Herding Tech) Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:29:57 -0000
"Training any athlete for success means identifying & nurturing the emergent properties within the individual". Excerpt from my new book-THT

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