| Philosophy Of Max Stirner |
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Stirner's philosophy has been cited as an influence on both his contemporaries, notably Freidrich Engels and Karl Marx as well as subsequent thinkers such as Enrico Arrigoni , Steven T. Byington , Benjamin R. Tucker and Saul Newman . ANARCHIST? '' (''Der Einzige and sein Eigentum'' which may literally be translated as ''The Unique Individual and His Property''Moggach, Douglas. The New Hegelians. Cambridge University Press. p. 177) was published, which is considered to be "a founding text in the tradition of individualist anarchism." Stirner proposes that most commonly accepted social institutions - including the notion of State, property as a right, natural rights in general, and the very notion of society - were mere illusions or ''ghosts'' in the mind, saying of society that "the individuals are its reality." Stirner wants to "abolish not only the state but also society as an institution responsible for its members."Heider, Ulrike. ''Anarchism: Left, Right and Green'', San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1994, pp. 95-96 He advocated egoism and a form of amoralism, in which individuals would unite in 'associations of egoists' only when it was in their self interest to do so. For him, property simply comes about through might: "Whoever knows how to take, to defend, the thing, to him belongs property." And, "What I have in my power, that is my own. So long as I assert myself as holder, I am the proprietor of the thing." He says, "I do not step shyly back from your property, but look upon it always as my property, in which I respect nothing. Pray do the like with what you call my property!"Stirner, Max. The Ego and Its Own, p. 248 Stirner considers the world and everything in it, including other persons, available to one's taking or use without moral constraint --that rights do not exist in regard to objects at all. He sees no rationality in taking the interests of others into account unless doing so furthers one's self-interest, which he believes is the only legitimate reason for acting. His embrace of Egoism is in stark contrast to Godwin's Altruism . He denies society as being an actual entity, calling society a "spook" and that "the individuals are its reality" (''The Ego and Its Own''). It should also be noted that Stirner, although an Individualist Anarchist in social philosophy never mentions markets and he did not believe it is a matter of moral right, but simply a matter of control. ''"I do not step shyly back from your property, but look upon it always as my property, in which I respect nothing. Pray do the like with what you call my property!"''Stirner, Max. The Ego and Its Own, p. 248 Stirner never referred to markets and his philosophy on property causes problems for a market system, because according to proponents of markets property is not considered to be legitimate if taken by force. Stirner was opposed to communism, seeing it as a form of authority over the individual. He said in Ego and Its Own: This position on property is much different from the native American, natural law, form of individualist anarchism, which defends the inviolability of the private property that has been earned through labor.Weir, David. Anarchy & Culture. University of Massachusetts Press. 1997. p. 146 However, in 1886 Benjamin Tucker rejected the natural rights philosophy and adopted Stirner's egoism, with several others joining with him. This split the American individualists into fierce debate, "with the natural rights proponents accusing the egoists of destroying libertarianism itself."McElroy, Wendy. Benjamin Tucker, Individualism, & Liberty: Not the Daughter but the Mother of Order . LITERATURE OF LIBERTY: A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY LIBERAL THOUGHT (1978-1982). Institute for Human Studies. Autumn 1981, VOL. IV, NO. 3 Other Egoists include James L. Walker , Sidney Parker , and Dora Marsden . However, it should be noted that Stirner's philosophy has also influenced some libertarian communists and anarcho-communists.For Ourselves, '' The Right to Be Greedy: Theses On The Practical Necessity Of Demanding Everything '', 1974. Forms of libertarian communism such as Situationism are strongly Egoist in nature.see, for example, Christopher Gray, ''Leaving the Twentieth Century'', p. 88. Anarcho-communist Emma Goldman was influenced by both Stirner and Peter Kropotkin and blended their philosophies together in her own, as shown in books of hers such as ''Anarchism And Other Essays''.Emma Goldman, ''Anarchism and Other Essays'', p. 50. EGOISM Stirner has been broadly understood as a proponent of both Psychological Egoism and Ethical Egoism , although the latter position can be disputed, as there is no claim in Stirner's writing, in which one 'ought to' pursue one's own interest, and further claiming any 'ought' could be seen as a new 'fixed idea'. However, he may be understood as a Rational Egoist in the sense that he considered it irrational not to act in one's self interest.
The contrast is also expressed in terms of the difference between the voluntary egoist being the possessor of his concepts as opposed to being possessed. Only when one realizes that all sacred truths such as Law , Right , Morality , Religion etc., are nothing other than artificial concepts, and not to be obeyed, can one act freely. For Stirner, to be free is to be both one's own "creature" (in the sense of 'creation') and one's own "creator" (dislocating the traditional role assigned to the gods). To Stirner power is the method of egoism. It is the only justified method of gaining ' Property '. Even Love is explained as "consciously egoistic":
However, Stirner cautioned against any Reification of the Egoist or subject: PROPERTY For Stirner, property simply comes about through might: "Whoever knows how to take, to defend, the thing, to him belongs property." "What I have in my power, that is my own. So long as I assert myself as holder, I am the proprietor of the thing." He says, "I do not step shyly back from your property, but look upon it always as my property, in which I respect nothing. Pray do the like with what you call my property!"Stirner, Max. The Ego and Its Own, p. 248. This position on property is much different from the preceding native American, natural law, form of individualist anarchism, which defends the inviolability of the private property that has been earned through labour.Weir, David. Anarchy & Culture. University of Massachusetts Press. 1997. p. 146 However, American individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker rejected the natural rights philosophy and adopted Stirner's egoism 1886, with several others joining with him. DOGMA The passages quoted above show the few points of contact between Stirner's philosophy and early Christianity . It is merely Jesus as an "annihilator" of the established biases and preconceptions of Rome that Stirner can relate to. His reason for "citing" the cultural change sparked by Jesus , is that he wants the Christian Ideologies of 19th Century Europe to collapse, much as the ideology of heathen Rome did before it (e.g., " Christian era will end with the casting off of the ideal, with 'contempt for the spirit'", p. 320). As with the Classical Skeptics before him, Stirner's method of self-liberation is opposed to faith or belief; he envisions a life free from "dogmatic presuppositions" (p. 135, 309) or any "fixed standpoint" (p. 295). It is not merely Christian Dogma that his thought repudiates, but also a wide variety of European Atheist Ideologies that are condemned as crypto- Christian for putting ideas in an equivalent role:
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