149-594: Johann Kaspar Schmidt (25 October 1806 – 26 June 1856), known professionally as Max Stirner , was a German post-Hegelian philosopher, dealing mainly with the Hegelian notion of social alienation and self-consciousness . Stirner is often seen as one of the forerunners of nihilism , existentialism , psychoanalytic theory , postmodernism and individualist anarchism . Stirner's main work, The Unique and Its Property ( German : Der Einzige und sein Eigentum ),
298-547: A Popularphilosoph (a "man of letters") who serves to make the abstruse ideas of philosophers accessible to a wider public; his own felt need to engage critically with the central ideas of Kantianism would not come until 1800. Having received his theological certificate from the Tübingen Seminary, Hegel became Hofmeister (house tutor) to an aristocratic family in Berne (1793–1796). During this period, he composed
447-495: A "creative nothing", a thing that cannot be bound by ideology, inaccessible to representation in language. Post-Hegelian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher and one of the most influential figures of German idealism and 19th-century philosophy . His influence extends across the entire range of contemporary philosophical topics, from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology , to political philosophy ,
596-411: A "creative nothing", beyond the ability of language to fully express, stating that "[i]f I concern myself for myself, the unique one, then my concern rests on its transitory, mortal creator, who consumes himself, and I may say: All things are nothing to me". The book proclaims that all religions and ideologies rest on empty concepts. The same holds true for society's institutions that claim authority over
745-447: A "philosophical disputorium." In 1802, Schelling and Hegel founded the journal Kritische Journal der Philosophie ( Critical Journal of Philosophy ) to which they contributed until the collaboration ended when Schelling left for Würzburg in 1803. In 1805, the university promoted Hegel to the unsalaried position of extraordinary professor after he wrote a letter to the poet and minister of culture Johann Wolfgang von Goethe protesting
894-534: A clumsy expression of what he wanted to say. It is the arduous work of the best years of his life, and yet he calls it, in part, 'clumsy'. That is how hard he struggled with a language that was ruined by philosophers, abused by state-, religious- and other believers, and enabled a boundless confusion of ideas". History of Reaction ( Geschichte der Reaktion ) was published in two volumes in 1851 by Allgemeine Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt and immediately banned in Austria. It
1043-550: A collection of atomized individuals, instead taking a holistic view of human self-consciousness as requiring the recognition of others, and people's view of themselves as being shaped by the views of others. Hegel describes The Phenomenology as both the "introduction" to his philosophical system and also as the "first part" of that system as the "science of the experience of consciousness." Yet it has long been controversial in both respects; indeed, Hegel's own attitude changed throughout his life. Nevertheless, however complicated
1192-598: A difference here to which one can "refer," only a dialectic that one can observe and describe. The final category of the Logic is "the idea." As with "the concept", the sense of this term for Hegel is not psychological. Rather, following Kant in The Critique of Pure Reason , Hegel's usage harks back to the Greek eidos , Plato 's concept of form that is fully existent and universal: "Hegel's Idee (like Plato's idea)
1341-546: A field of action, a "never-being I." The "I" had no essence to realize and life itself was a process of self-dissolution. Far from accepting, like the humanist Hegelians, a construal of subjectivity endowed with a universal and ethical mission, Stirner's notion of "the Unique" ( Der Einzige ) distances itself from any conceptualization whatsoever: "There is no development of the concept of the Unique. No philosophical system can be built out of it, as it can out of Being, or Thinking, or
1490-635: A high official in Munich, pleading for Niethammer's help in securing a teaching position. With the help of Niethammer, Hegel was appointed headmaster of a gymnasium in Nuremberg in November 1808, a post he held until 1816. While in Nuremberg, Hegel adapted his recently published Phenomenology of Spirit for use in the classroom. Part of his remit was to teach a class called "Introduction to Knowledge of
1639-592: A historian; and Immanuel [ de ] , who followed a theological path – lived long and safeguarded their father's manuscripts and letters , and produced editions of his works. As H. S. Harris recounts, when Hegel entered the Tübingen seminary in 1788, "he was a typical product of the German Enlightenment – an enthusiastic reader of Rousseau and Lessing , acquainted with Kant (at least at second hand), but perhaps more deeply devoted to
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#17327798157921788-423: A journal edited by Otto Wigand from Leipzig. At the time, Wigand had already published The Unique and Its Property and was about to finish the publication of Stirner's translations of Adam Smith and Jean-Baptiste Say. As the subtitle indicates, The Philosophical Reactionaries was written in response to a 1847 article by Kuno Fischer (1824–1907) entitled The Modern Sophists ( Die Moderne Sophisten ). The article
1937-510: A kind of "unity-in-difference," this both in the ancient articulation provided by Plato and in the Christian religion's doctrine of agape , which Hegel at this time viewed as "already 'grounded on universal Reason. ' " This interest, as well as his theological training, would continue to mark his thought, even as it developed in a more theoretical or metaphysical direction. According to Glenn Alexander Magee, Hegel's thought (in particular,
2086-430: A metaphysical logic of truth. There are two texts of Hegel's Logic . The first, The Science of Logic (1812, 1813, 1816; bk.I revised 1831), is sometimes also called the "Greater Logic." The second is the first volume of Hegel's Encyclopedia and is sometimes known as the "Lesser Logic." The Encyclopedia Logic is an abbreviated or condensed presentation of the same dialectic. Hegel composed it for use with students in
2235-613: A permanent position replacing a professor of botany, he was unable to find a permanent position. In 1807, he had to move to Bamberg since his savings and the payment from the Phenomenology were exhausted and he needed money to support his illegitimate son Ludwig. There, he became the editor of the local newspaper, Bamberger Zeitung [ de ] , a position he obtained with the help of Niethammer. Ludwig Fischer and his mother stayed behind in Jena. In Bamberg, as editor of
2384-605: A place of curious interest among Marxist readers, Marx's ridicule of Stirner has played a significant role in the preservation of Stirner's work in popular and academic discourse despite lacking mainstream popularity. Twenty years after the appearance of Stirner's book, the author Friedrich Albert Lange wrote the following: Stirner went so far in his notorious work, 'Der Einzige und Sein Eigenthum' (1845), as to reject all moral ideas. Everything that in any way, whether it be external force, belief, or mere idea, places itself above
2533-698: A post from the Universities of Erlangen , Berlin and Heidelberg , Hegel chose Heidelberg, where he moved in 1816. Soon after, his illegitimate son Ludwig Fischer (now ten years old) joined the Hegel household in April 1817, having spent time in an orphanage after the death of his mother Christiana Burkhardt. In 1817, Hegel published The Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline as
2682-455: A proto- poststructuralist who on the one hand had essentially anticipated modern post-structuralists such as Foucault , Lacan , Deleuze and Derrida, but on the other had already transcended them, thus providing what they were unable to—i.e. a ground for a non-essentialist critique of present liberal capitalist society. This is particularly evident in Stirner's identification of the self with
2831-647: A sister, Chistiane Luise [ de ] (1773–1832); and a brother, Georg Ludwig (1776–1812), who perished as an officer during Napoleon's 1812 Russian campaign. At the age of three, Hegel went to the German School. When he entered the Latin School two years later, he already knew the first declension , having been taught it by his mother. In 1776, he entered Stuttgart's Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium and during his adolescence read voraciously, copying lengthy extracts in his diary. Authors he read include
2980-411: A slim basis on which to firmly identify Stirner as the author. This circumstantial evidence has led some scholars to cast doubts over Stirner's authorship, based on both the style and content of 'Die Philosophischen Reactionäre'. One should, however, bear in mind that it was written almost three years after Der Einzige und sein Eigentum , at a time when Young Hegelianism had withered away. The majority of
3129-657: A summary of his philosophy for students attending his lectures at Heidelberg. It is also while in Heidelberg that Hegel first lectured on the philosophy of art. In 1818, Hegel accepted the renewed offer of the chair of philosophy at the University of Berlin, which had remained vacant since Johann Gottlieb Fichte 's death in 1814. Here, Hegel published his Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1821). Hegel devoted himself primarily to delivering lectures; his lectures on
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#17327798157923278-746: A tumor, alleged to be due to an infected insect bite. Only Bruno Bauer and Ludwig Buhl represented the Young Hegelians present at his funeral, held at the Friedhof II der Sophiengemeinde Berlin . Stirner, whose main philosophical work was The Unique and Its Property , is credited as a major influence in the development of nihilism , existentialism and post-modernism as well as individualist anarchism , post-anarchism and post-left anarchy . He also influenced illegalists , feminists , nihilists and bohemians , as well as fascists , right-libertarians and anarcho-capitalists . Although Stirner
3427-574: A wedge between him and Marie, leading to their separation in 1847. Marie later converted to Catholicism and died in 1902 in London. After The Unique and Its Property , Stirner wrote Stirner's Critics and translated Adam Smith 's The Wealth of Nations and Jean-Baptiste Say 's Traite d'Economie Politique into German to little financial gain. He also wrote a compilation of texts titled History of Reaction in 1852. Stirner died in 1856 in Berlin from
3576-515: Is Hegel's attempt to meet this foundational demand. As he puts it, " logic coincides with metaphysics ." In the words of scholar Glenn Alexander Magee, the logic provides "an account of pure categories or ideas which are timelessly true" and which make up "the formal structure of reality itself". It is important to see, however, that Hegel's metaphysical program is not a return to the Leibnizian - Wolffian rationalism critiqued by Kant, which
3725-494: Is a criticism Hegel accepts. In particular, Hegel rejects any form of metaphysics as speculation about the transcendent. His procedure, an appropriation of Aristotle's concept of form , is fully immanent. More generally, Hegel agrees wholeheartedly with Kant's rejection of all forms of dogmatism and also agrees that any future metaphysics must pass the test of criticism. It is the assessment of scholar Stephen Houlgate that Hegel's method of immanent logical development and critique
3874-424: Is an ongoing project with respect to its historical content, which continues to change and develop. For instance, although Hegel regards "the basic structure" of the philosophy of nature as complete, he was "aware that science is not 'finished' and will continue to make new discoveries". Philosophy is, as Hegel puts it, " its own time comprehended in thoughts ." He expands upon this definition: A further word on
4023-422: Is embarking upon nothing less than a transcendental deduction of metaphysics." In the course of its dialectic, the Phenomenology purports to demonstrate that – because consciousness always includes self-consciousness – there are no 'given' objects of direct awareness not already mediated by thought. Further analysis of the structure of self-consciousness reveals that both the social and conceptual stability of
4172-411: Is grounded in the principle of immanence , that is, in assessing claims always according to their own internal criteria. Taking skepticism seriously, he contends that people cannot presume any truths that have not passed the test of experience; even the a priori categories of the Logic must attain their "verification" in the natural world and the historical accomplishments of humankind. Guided by
4321-632: Is highly likely that this and the group sketch of Die Freien at Hippel's are the only firsthand images of Stirner. Stirner worked as a teacher in a school for young girls owned by Madame Gropius when he wrote his major work, The Unique and Its Property , which in part is a polemic against Feuerbach and Bauer, but also against communists such as Wilhelm Weitling and the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon . He resigned from his teaching position in anticipation of controversy from this work's publication in October 1844. Stirner married twice. His first wife
4470-593: Is historically unique. Philosopher Béatrice Longuenesse holds that this project may be understood, on analogy to Kant, as "inseparably a metaphysical and a transcendental deduction of the categories of metaphysics." This approach insists, and claims to demonstrate, that the insights of logic cannot be judged by standards external to thought itself, that is, that "thought... is not the mirror of nature." Yet, she argues, this does not imply that these standards are arbitrary or subjective. Hegel's translator and scholar of German idealism George di Giovanni likewise interprets
4619-486: Is hostile to Hegel's conclusions about the self and the world, Stepelevich states that Stirner's work is best understood as answering Hegel's question of the role of consciousness after it has contemplated "untrue knowledge" and become "absolute knowledge." Stepelevich concludes that Stirner presents the consequences of the rediscovering one's self-consciousness after realizing self-determination. Scholars such as Douglas Moggach and Widukind De Ridder have stated that Stirner
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4768-408: Is neither a Platonist who believes in abstract logical entities, nor a nominalist according to whom the particular is first in the orders of explanation and being alike. Rather, Hegel is a holist . For Hegel, the universal is always first in the order of explanation even if what is naturally particular is first in the order of being. With respect to the system as a whole, that universal is supplied by
4917-528: Is not a fight against the established, since, if it prospers, the established collapses of itself; it is only a working forth of me out of the established. If I leave the established, it is dead and passes into decay." Stirner's idea of the Union of egoists was first expounded in The Unique and Its Property . The Union is understood as a non-systematic association, which Stirner proposed in contradistinction to
5066-664: Is not a psychological concept. When deployed with the definitive article ("the") and sometimes modified by the term "logical," Hegel is referring to the intelligible structure of reality as articulated in the Subjective Logic. (When used in the plural, however, Hegel's sense is much closer to the ordinary dictionary sense of the term. ) Hegel's inquiry into thought is concerned to systematize thought's own internal self-differentiation, that is, how pure concepts ( logical categories ) differ from one another in their various relations of implication and interdependence. For instance, in
5215-559: Is striking: Have you philosophers really no clue that you have been beaten with your own weapons? Only one clue. What can your common sense reply when I dissolve dialectically what you have merely posited dialectically? You have showed me with what kind of 'volubility' one can turn everything to nothing and nothing to everything, black into white and white into black. What do you have against me, when I return to you your pure art? Looking back on The Unique and Its Property , Stirner claims that "Stirner himself has described his book as, in part,
5364-520: Is the final part of the Logic . It discusses the doctrine of "the Concept," which is concerned with reintegrating those categories of objectivity into a thoroughly idealistic account of reality. Simplifying greatly, Being describes its concepts just as they appear, Essence attempts to explain them with reference to other forces, and the Concept explains and unites them both in terms of an internal teleology. The categories of Being "pass over" from one to
5513-485: Is the method of Stirner's egoism and the only justified method of gaining philosophical property . Stirner did not believe in the one-track pursuit of greed, which as only one aspect of the ego would lead to being possessed by a cause other than the full ego. He did not believe in natural rights to property and encouraged insurrection against all forms of authority, including disrespect for property. Stirner proposes that most commonly accepted social institutions—including
5662-446: Is the product of an attempt to fuse ontology, epistemology, evaluation, etc., into a single set of concepts." The Logic accommodates within itself the necessity of the realm of natural-spiritual contingency , that which cannot be determined in advance: "To go further, it must abandon thinking altogether and let itself go, opening itself to that which is other than thought in pure receptivity." Simply put, logic realizes itself only in
5811-448: Is the self-concept of consciousness itself that is tested in the domain of experience, and where that concept is not adequate, self-consciousness "suffers this violence at its own hands, and brings to ruin its own restricted satisfaction." For, as Hegel points out, one cannot learn how to swim without getting into the water. By progressively testing its concept of knowledge in this way, by "making experience his standard of knowledge, Hegel
5960-414: Is to articulate what Hegel calls "the identity of identity and non-identity" of nature and spirit. Put another way, it aims to overcome subject-object dualism. This is to say that, among other things, Hegel's philosophical project endeavors to provide the metaphysical basis for an account of spirit that is continuous with, yet distinct from, the "merely" natural world – without thereby reducing either term to
6109-543: Is worth pointing out that Stirner rejected 'communism'. Stirner did not subscribe to libertarian communism, because it did not exist when he was writing and so he was directing his critique against the various forms of state communism which did. Moreover, this does not mean that anarcho-communists and others may not find his work of use to them. And Stirner would have approved, for nothing could be more foreign to his ideas than to limit what an individual considers to be in their best interest." In summarizing Stirner's main arguments,
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6258-640: The Bamberger Zeitung [ de ] , which was a pro-French newspaper, Hegel extolled the virtues of Napoleon and often editorialized the Prussian accounts of the war. Being the editor of a local newspaper, Hegel also became an important person in Bamberg social life, often visiting with the local official Johann Heinrich Liebeskind [ de ] , and becoming involved in local gossip and pursued his passions for cards, fine eating, and
6407-453: The Delphic imperative to " know thyself ", Hegel presents free self-determination as the essence of humankind – a conclusion from his 1806–07 Phenomenology that he claims is further verified by the systematic account of the interdependence of logic, nature , and spirit in his later Encyclopedia . He asserts that the Logic at once preserves and overcomes the dualisms of the material and
6556-488: The Encyclopedia (second edition, 1827; third, 1830). In his political philosophy, he criticized Karl Ludwig von Haller 's reactionary work, which claimed that laws were not necessary. A number of other works on the philosophy of history , religion , aesthetics and the history of philosophy were compiled from the lecture notes of his students and published posthumously. Hegel was appointed University Rector of
6705-635: The Gymnasium concluded with his graduation speech, "The abortive state of art and scholarship in Turkey." At the age of eighteen, Hegel entered the Tübinger Stift , a Protestant seminary attached to the University of Tübingen , where he had as roommates the poet and philosopher Friedrich Hölderlin and the future philosopher Friedrich Schelling . Sharing a dislike for what they regarded as
6854-499: The Logic as (drawing upon, yet also in opposition to, Kant ) immanently transcendental ; its categories, according to Hegel, are built into life itself , and define what it is to be "an object in general." Books one and two of the Logic are the doctrines of "Being" and "Essence." Together they comprise the Objective Logic, which is largely occupied with overcoming the assumptions of traditional metaphysics. Book three
7003-434: The Phenomenology a Bildungsroman . It is not the consciousness under observation that learns from its experience. Only "we," the phenomenological observers, are in a position to profit from Hegel's logical reconstruction of the science of experience. The ensuing dialectic is long and hard. It is described by Hegel himself as a "path of despair," in which self-consciousness finds itself to be, over and again, in error. It
7152-438: The Phenomenology with respect to either of the systematic roles asserted by Hegel at the time of its publication. Hegel's philosophical system is divided into three parts: the science of logic , the philosophy of nature , and the philosophy of spirit (the latter two of which together constitute the real philosophy ). This structure is adopted from Proclus 's Neoplatonic triad of " 'remaining-procession-return' and from
7301-532: The Situationist International including Raoul Vaneigem and Max Ernst . Oscar Wilde 's The Soul of Man Under Socialism has caused some historians to speculate that Wilde (who could read German) was familiar with the book. Stirner's philosophy was important in the development of modern anarchist thought, particularly individualist anarchism and egoist anarchism . Although Stirner is usually associated with individualist anarchism , he
7450-455: The University of Berlin on topics from his Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences . Throughout his work, Hegel strove to address and correct the problematic dualisms of modern philosophy, Kantian and otherwise, typically by drawing upon the resources of ancient philosophy , particularly Aristotle . Hegel everywhere insists that reason and freedom are historical achievements, not natural givens. His dialectical -speculative procedure
7599-450: The essentialities of the things ." As Michael Wolff explains, Hegel's logic is a continuation of Kant's distinctive logical program. Its occasional engagement with the familiar Aristotelian conception of logic is only incidental to Hegel's project. Twentieth-century developments by such logicians as Frege and Russell likewise remain logics of formal validity and so are likewise irrelevant to Hegel's project, which aspires to provide
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#17327798157927748-504: The inaugural dissertation De Orbitis Planetarum , in which he briefly criticized mathematical arguments that assert that there must exist a planet between Mars and Jupiter . Later in the year, Hegel's essay The Difference Between Fichte's and Schelling's System of Philosophy was completed. He lectured on "Logic and Metaphysics" and gave lectures with Schelling on an "Introduction to the Idea and Limits of True Philosophy" and facilitated
7897-873: The philosophy of history , philosophy of art , philosophy of religion , and the history of philosophy . Born in 1770 in Stuttgart , Holy Roman Empire, during the transitional period between the Enlightenment and the Romantic movement in the Germanic regions of Europe, Hegel lived through and was influenced by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars . His fame rests chiefly upon The Phenomenology of Spirit , The Science of Logic , his teleological account of history, and his lectures at
8046-480: The state . Unlike a "community" in which individuals are obliged to participate, Stirner's suggested Union would be voluntary and instrumental under which individuals would freely associate insofar as others within the Union remain useful to each constituent individual. The Union relation between egoists is continually renewed by all parties' support through an act of will. Some such as Svein Olav Nyberg argue that
8195-504: The Christian Trinity." Although evident in draft writings dating back as early as 1805, the system was not completed in published form until the 1817 Encyclopedia (1st ed.). Frederick C. Beiser argues that the position of the logic with respect to the real philosophy is best understood in terms of Hegel's appropriation of Aristotle's distinction between "the order of explanation" and "the order of being." To Beiser, Hegel
8344-479: The I. Rather, with it, all development of the concept ceases. The person who views it as a principle thinks that he can treat it philosophically or theoretically and necessarily wastes his breath arguing against it." In 1842, The False Principle of Our Education ( Das unwahre Prinzip unserer Erziehung ) was published in Rheinische Zeitung , which was edited by Marx at the time. Written as a reaction to
8493-402: The Union requires that all parties participate out of a conscious egoism while others such as Sydney E. Parker regard the union as a "change of attitude," rejecting its previous conception as an institution. Scholar Lawrence Stepelevich states that G. W. F. Hegel was a major influence on The Unique and Its Property . While the latter has an "un-Hegelian structure and tone" on the whole and
8642-551: The United Kingdom, Herbert Read was influenced by Stirner and noted the closeness of Stirner's egoism to existentialism (see existentialist anarchism). Later in the 1960s, Daniel Guérin says in Anarchism: From Theory to Practice that Stirner "rehabilitated the individual at a time when the philosophical field was dominated by Hegelian anti-individualism and most reformers in the social field had been led by
8791-601: The Universal Coherence of the Sciences." In 1811, Hegel married Marie Helena Susanna von Tucher (1791–1855), the eldest daughter of a Senator. This period saw the publication of his second major work, the Science of Logic ( Wissenschaft der Logik ; 3 vols., 1812, 1813 and 1816), and the birth of two sons, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm (1813–1901) and Immanuel Thomas Christian (1814–1891). Having received offers of
8940-438: The University of Jena from much of the destruction of the surrounding city, few students returned after the battle and enrollment suffered, making Hegel's financial prospects even worse. Hegel traveled in the winter to Bamberg and stayed with Niethammer to oversee the proofs of the Phenomenology , which was being printed there. Although Hegel tried to obtain another professorship, even writing Goethe in an attempt to help secure
9089-470: The Young Hegelians were eager subscribers to Hegel's dialectical method and attempted to apply dialectical approaches to Hegel's conclusions, the left-wing members of the group broke with Hegel. Feuerbach and Bauer led this charge. Frequently the debates would take place at Hippel's, a wine bar in Friedrichstraße , attended by among others Marx and Engels, who were both adherents of Feuerbach at
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#17327798157929238-421: The abolition of the age of consent. Feminists influenced by Stirner include anarchist Emma Goldman, as well as Dora Marsden who founded the journals The Freewoman , The New Freewoman , and The Egoist . Stirner also influenced free love and polyamory propagandist Émile Armand in the context of French individualist anarchism of the early 20th century which is known for "[t]he call of nudist naturism ,
9387-531: The anarchist movement in Glasgow, Scotland, took Stirner's ' Union of egoists ' literally as the basis for their anarcho-syndicalist organising in the 1940s and beyond." Similarly, the noted anarchist historian Max Nettlau states that "[o]n reading Stirner, I maintain that he cannot be interpreted except in a socialist sense." Stirner was anti-capitalist and pro-labour , attacking "the division of labour resulting from private property for its deadening effects on
9536-460: The business of making Objects as well as the whole of objectivity itself, and so breathes the air of freedom. Reason, the spirit of Philosophy, concerns itself only with itself, and troubles itself over no Object. Stirner deliberately left "Philosophy" out of the dialectical triad (Art–Religion–Philosophy) by claiming that "Philosophy" does not "bother itself with objects" (Religion), nor does it "make an object" (Art). In Stirner's account, "Philosophy"
9685-884: The character of the Anarch , based on Stirner's Einzige. Some have tried to use Stirner’s ideas to defend capitalism while others have used them to argue for anarcho-syndicalism. Several other authors, philosophers and artists have cited, quoted or otherwise referred to Max Stirner. They include Albert Camus in The Rebel (the section on Stirner is omitted from the majority of English editions including Penguin 's), Benjamin Tucker, James Huneker , Dora Marsden, Renzo Novatore , Emma Goldman , Georg Brandes , John Cowper Powys , Martin Buber , Sidney Hook , Robert Anton Wilson , Horst Matthai , Frank Brand , Marcel Duchamp , several writers of
9834-457: The city. On the day before the battle, Napoleon entered the city of Jena. Hegel recounted his impressions in a letter to his friend Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer : I saw the Emperor – this world-soul [ Weltseele ] – riding out of the city on reconnaissance. It is indeed a wonderful sensation to see such an individual, who, concentrated here at a single point, astride a horse, reaches out over
9983-517: The classics than to any thing modern." During this early period of his life "the Greeks – especially Plato – came first." Although he later elevated Aristotle above Plato, Hegel never abandoned his love of ancient philosophy, the imprint of which is everywhere in his thought. Hegel's concern with various forms of cultural unity (Judaic, Greek, medieval, and modern) during this early period would remain with him throughout his career. In this way, he
10132-457: The criticism in a German periodical in the September 1845 article Stirner's Critics ( Recensenten Stirners ), which clarifies several points of interest to readers of the book—especially in relation to Feuerbach. While Marx's Saint Max ( Sankt Max ), a large part of The German Ideology ( Die Deutsche Ideologie ), was not published until 1932 and thus assured The Unique and Its Property
10281-621: The definitive modern articulation of the divisions that must be overcome. This led to his engagement with the philosophical programs of Fichte and Schelling , as well as his attention to Spinoza and the Pantheism controversy . The influence of Johann Gottfried von Herder , however, would lead Hegel to a qualified rejection of the universality claimed by the Kantian program in favor of a more culturally, linguistically, and historically informed account of reason. The Phenomenology of Spirit
10430-462: The details, the basic strategy by which it attempts to make good on its introductory claim is not difficult to state. Beginning with only the most basic "certainties of consciousness itself," "the most immediate of which is the certainty that I am conscious of this object, here and now ," Hegel aims to show that these "certainties of natural consciousness" have as their consequence the standpoint of speculative logic. This does not, however, make
10579-485: The domain of nature and spirit, in which it attains its "verification." Hence the conclusion of the Science of Logic with "the idea freely discharging [entläßt] itself" into "objectivity and external life" – and, so too, the systematic transition to the Realphilosophie . In contrast to the first, logical part of Hegel's system, the second, real-philosophical part – the philosophy of nature and of spirit –
10728-431: The ego and individuality of the worker" and writing that free competition "is not 'free,' because I lack the things for competition. [...] Under the regime of the commonality the labourers always fall into the hands of the possessors of the capitalists [...]. The labourer cannot realise on his labour to the extent of the value that it has for the customer. [...] The state rests on the slavery of labour. If labour becomes free,
10877-545: The egoist papers that Tucker followed, there were the German Der Eigene , edited by Adolf Brand ; and The Eagle and The Serpent , issued from London. The latter, the most prominent English-language egoist journal, was published from 1898 to 1900 with the subtitle A Journal of Egoistic Philosophy and Sociology . Other American egoist anarchists around the early 20th century include James L. Walker , George Schumm, John Beverley Robinson , Steven T. Byington . In
11026-418: The essay "Fragments on Religion and Love." In 1799, he wrote another essay titled "The Spirit of Christianity and Its Fate", unpublished during his lifetime. In 1801, Hegel came to Jena at the encouragement of Schelling, who held the position of Extraordinary Professor at the University of Jena . Hegel secured a position at the University of Jena as a Privatdozent (unsalaried lecturer) after submitting
11175-619: The established condition or status, the State or society, and is accordingly a political or social act; the latter has indeed for its unavoidable consequence a transformation of circumstances, yet does not start from it but from men's discontent with themselves, is not an armed rising, but a rising of individuals, a getting up, without regard to the arrangements that spring from it. The Revolution aimed at new arrangements; insurrection leads us no longer to let ourselves be arranged, but to arrange ourselves, and sets no glittering hopes on 'institutions'. It
11324-485: The experiential world depend upon networks of reciprocal recognition. Failures of recognition, then, demand reflection upon the past as a way "to understand what is required of us at the present." For Hegel, this ultimately involves rethinking an interpretation of "religion as the collective reflection of the modern community on what ultimately counts for it." He contends, finally, that this "historically, socially construed philosophical account of that whole process" elucidates
11473-418: The genesis of a distinctly "modern" standpoint. Another way of putting this is to say that the Phenomenology takes up Kant's philosophical project of investigating the capacities and limits of reason. Under the influence of Herder, however, Hegel proceeds historically, instead of altogether a priori. Yet, although proceeding historically, Hegel resists the relativistic consequences of Herder's own thought. In
11622-412: The given intact by considering it a mere object, not of transformation, but of enjoyment and consumption ("His Own"). According to Moggach, Stirner does not go beyond Hegel, but he in fact leaves the domain of philosophy in its entirety, stating: Stirner refused to conceptualize the human self, and rendered it devoid of any reference to rationality or universal standards. The self was moreover considered
11771-443: The homosexual periodical Der Eigene in 1896. This was the first ongoing homosexual publication in the world and ran until 1931. The name was taken from the writings of Stirner (who had greatly influenced the young Brand) and refers to Stirner's concept of " self-ownership " of the individual. Another early homosexual activist influenced by Stirner was John Henry Mackay. Mackay also used the works of Stirner to justify "man-boy love" and
11920-436: The human reality they reflect." In other words, it is not enough to consider propositions, or even the content of consciousness; "it is worthwhile to ask in every instance what kind of spirit would entertain such propositions, hold such views, and have such a consciousness. Every outlook in other words, is to be studied not merely as an academic possibility but as an existential reality." The Phenomenology of Spirit shows that
12069-435: The hybrid of post-structuralism and anarchism called post-anarchism , Saul Newman has written on Stirner and his similarities to post-structuralism. Insurrectionary anarchism also has an important relationship with Stirner as can be seen in the work of Wolfi Landstreicher and Alfredo Bonanno who has also written on him in works such as Max Stirner and Max Stirner and Anarchism . German Stirnerist Adolf Brand produced
12218-452: The ideal appears opposite the real and reconstructs this real world, which it has grasped in its substance, in the shape of an intellectual realm. When philosophy paints its gray in gray, a shape of life has grown old, and it cannot be rejuvenated, but only recognized, by the gray in gray of philosophy; the owl of Minerva begins its flight only with the onset of dusk. Marie D%C3%A4hnhardt Too Many Requests If you report this error to
12367-434: The individual and his caprice, Stirner rejects as a hateful limitation of himself. What a pity that to this book—the extremest that we know anywhere—a second positive part was not added. It would have been easier than in the case of Schelling 's philosophy; for out of the unlimited Ego I can again beget every kind of Idealism as my will and my idea . Stirner lays so much stress upon the will, in fact, that it appears as
12516-421: The individual, be it the state, legislation, the church, or the systems of education such as universities. Stirner's argument explores and extends the limits of criticism, aiming his critique especially at those of his contemporaries, particularly Ludwig Feuerbach and Bruno Bauer, also at popular ideologies, including communism, humanism (which he regarded as analogous to religion with the abstract Man or humanity as
12665-470: The influence of early Romanticism, he underwent a sort of reversal, exploring, in particular, the mystical experience of love as the true essence of religion. Also in 1797, the unpublished and unsigned manuscript of " The Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism " was written. It was written in Hegel's hand, but may have been authored by Hegel, Schelling, or Hölderlin. While in Frankfurt, Hegel composed
12814-543: The interests of others into account unless doing so furthers one's self-interest, which he believes is the only legitimate reason for acting. He denies society as being an actual entity, calling society a "spook" and that "the individuals are its reality." Despite being labeled as anarchist, Stirner was not necessarily one. Separation of Stirner and egoism from anarchism was first done in 1914 by Dora Marsden in her debate with Benjamin Tucker in her journals The New Freewoman and The Egoist . Stirner suggested that communism
12963-684: The journal Norddeutsche Blätter , and by Ludwig Feuerbach anonymously in an article called On 'The Essence of Christianity' in Relation to Stirner's 'The Unique and Its Property' ( Über 'Das Wesen des Christentums' in Beziehung auf Stirners 'Der Einzige und sein Eigentum ' ) in Wigands Vierteljahrsschrift . The Philosophical Reactionaries ( Die Philosophischen Reactionäre ) was published in 1847 in Die Epigonen ,
13112-483: The lecture hall, not as a substitute for its proper, book-length exposition. Hegel presents logic as a presuppositionless science that investigates the most fundamental thought-determinations [ Denkbestimmungen ], or categories , and so constitutes the basis of philosophy. In putting something into question, one already presupposes logic; in this regard, it is the only field of inquiry that must constantly reflect upon its own mode of functioning. The Science of Logic
13261-406: The lectures of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , who was to become a source of inspiration for his thinking. He attended Hegel's lectures on the history of philosophy, the philosophy of religion and the subjective spirit. Stirner then moved to the University of Erlangen , which he attended at the same time as Ludwig Feuerbach . Stirner returned to Berlin and obtained a teaching certificate, but he
13410-469: The length of the text itself. The fourth chapter of the Phenomenology includes Hegel's first presentation of the lord-bondsman dialectic , the section of the book that has been most influential in general culture. What is at stake in the conflict Hegel presents is the practical (not theoretical) recognition or acknowledgement [ Anerkennung , anerkennen ] of the universality – i.e., personhood, humanity – of each of two opposed self-consciousnesses. What
13559-461: The local Bamberg beer. However, Hegel bore contempt for what he saw as "old Bavaria", frequently referring to it as "Barbaria" and dreaded that "hometowns" like Bamberg would lose their autonomy under new the Bavarian state. After being investigated in September 1808 by the Bavarian state for potentially violating security measures by publishing French troop movements, Hegel wrote to Niethammer, now
13708-416: The logic. Michael J. Inwood states, "The logical idea is non-temporal and therefore does not exist at any time apart from its manifestations." To ask "when" it divides into nature and spirit is analogous to asking "when" 12 divides into 5 and 7. The question does not have an answer because it is predicated upon a fundamental misunderstanding of its terms. The task of the logic (at this high systemic level)
13857-587: The mental – that is, it accounts for both the continuity and difference marking the domains of nature and culture – as a metaphysically necessary and coherent "identity of identity and non-identity". Hegel was born on 27 August 1770 in Stuttgart , capital of the Duchy of Württemberg in the Holy Roman Empire (now southwestern Germany). Christened Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, he was known as Wilhelm to his close family. His father, Georg Ludwig Hegel (1733–1799),
14006-474: The misdeeds of bourgeois egotism to stress its opposite" and pointed to "the boldness and scope of his thought". In the 1970s, an American Situationist collective called For Ourselves published a book called The Right To Be Greedy: Theses On The Practical Necessity Of Demanding Everything in which they advocate a "communist egoism" basing themselves on Stirner. Later in the United States, it emerged
14155-402: The new semester began in October, Hegel returned to Berlin in the mistaken belief that the epidemic had largely subsided. By 14 November, Hegel was dead. The physicians pronounced the cause of death as cholera, but it is likely he died from another gastrointestinal disease. His last words are said to have been, "There was only one man who ever understood me, and even he didn't understand me." He
14304-473: The next as denoting thought-determinations only extrinsically connected to one another. The categories of Essence reciprocally "shine" into one another. Finally, in the Concept, thought has shown itself to be fully self-referential, and so its categories organically "develop" from one to the next. It is clear then, that in Hegel's technical sense of the term, the concept ( Begriff , sometimes also rendered "notion," capitalized by some translators but not others )
14453-463: The notion of state , property as a right , natural rights in general and the very notion of society —were mere illusions, "spooks" or ghosts in the mind. He advocated egoism and a form of amoralism in which individuals would unite in Unions of egoists only when it was in their self-interest to do so. For him, property simply comes about through might, saying: "Whoever knows how to take and to defend
14602-399: The opening dialectic of the Logic , Hegel claims to display that the thought of " being, pure being – without further determination" is indistinguishable from the concept of nothing , and that, in this "passing back and forth" of being and nothing, " each immediately vanishes in its opposite. " This movement is neither one concept nor the other, but the category of becoming . There is not
14751-533: The other. Furthermore, the final sections of Hegel's Encyclopedia suggest that to give priority to any one of its three parts is to have an interpretation that is "one-sided," incomplete or otherwise inaccurate. As Hegel famously declares, "The true is the whole." Hegel's concept of logic differs greatly from that of the ordinary English sense of the term. This can be seen, for instance, in such metaphysical definitions of logic as "the science of things grasped in [the] thoughts that used to be taken to express
14900-416: The philosophy of fine art, the philosophy of religion, the philosophy of history, and the history of philosophy were published posthumously from students' notes. In spite of his notoriously terrible delivery, his fame spread and his lectures attracted students from all over Germany and beyond. Meanwhile, Hegel and his pupils, such as Leopold von Henning , Friedrich Wilhelm Carové , were harassed and put under
15049-472: The poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and writers associated with the Enlightenment , such as Christian Garve and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing . In 1844, Hegel's first biographer, Karl Rosenkranz described the young Hegel's education there by saying that it "belonged entirely to the Enlightenment with respect to principle, and entirely to classical antiquity with respect to curriculum." His studies at
15198-601: The principle of education from making us "masters of things" to making us "free natures", naming his educational principle " personalist ". Art and Religion ( Kunst und Religion ) was also published in Rheinische Zeitung on 14 June 1842. It addresses Bruno Bauer and his publication against Hegel called Hegel's Doctrine of Religion and Art Judged From the Standpoint of Faith . Bauer had inverted Hegel's relation between "Art" and "Religion" by claiming that "Art"
15347-442: The promotion of his philosophical adversary Jakob Friedrich Fries ahead of him. Hegel attempted to enlist the help of the poet and translator Johann Heinrich Voß to obtain a post at the renascent University of Heidelberg , but he failed. To his chagrin, Fries was, in the same year, made ordinary professor (salaried). The following February marked the birth of Hegel's illegitimate son, Georg Ludwig Friedrich Fischer (1807–1831), as
15496-408: The readers learn, but what the self-consciousnesses described do not yet realize, is that recognition can only be successful and actual as reciprocal or mutual. This is the case for the simple reason that the recognition of someone you do not recognize as properly human cannot count as genuine recognition. Hegel can also be seen here as criticizing the individualist worldview of people and society as
15645-648: The restrictive environment of the Seminary, the three became close friends and mutually influenced each other's ideas. (It is mostly likely that Hegel attended the Stift because it was state-funded, for he had "a profound distaste for the study of orthodox theology" and never wanted to become a minister. ) All three greatly admired Hellenic civilization, and Hegel additionally steeped himself in Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Lessing during this time. They watched
15794-462: The result of an affair with Hegel's landlady Christiana Burkhardt née Fischer. With his finances drying up quickly, Hegel was under great pressure to deliver his book, the long-promised introduction to his philosophical system. Hegel was putting the finishing touches to it, The Phenomenology of Spirit , as Napoleon engaged Prussian troops on 14 October 1806 in the Battle of Jena on a plateau outside
15943-412: The root force of human nature. It may remind us of Schopenhauer . Some people believe that in a sense a "second positive part" was soon to be added, though not by Stirner, but by Friedrich Nietzsche . The relationship between Nietzsche and Stirner seems to be much more complicated. According to George J. Stack's Lange and Nietzsche , Nietzsche read Lange's History of Materialism "again and again" and
16092-479: The search for an externally objective criterion of truth is a fool's errand. The constraints on knowledge are necessarily internal to spirit itself. Yet, although theories and self-conceptions may always be reevaluated, renegotiated, and revised, this is not a merely imaginative exercise. Claims to knowledge must always prove their own adequacy in real historical experience. Although Hegel seemed during his Berlin years to have abandoned The Phenomenology of Spirit , at
16241-630: The state is lost." For Stirner, "Labor has an egoistic character; the laborer is the egoist." Stirner's egoism argues that individuals are impossible to fully comprehend, as no understanding of the self can adequately describe the fullness of experience. Stirner has been broadly understood as containing traits of both psychological egoism and rational egoism . Unlike the self-interest described by Ayn Rand , Stirner did not address individual self-interest, selfishness, or prescriptions for how one should act. He urged individuals to decide for themselves and fulfill their own egoism. He believed that everyone
16390-502: The strong defense of birth control methods, the idea of "unions of egoists" with the sole justification of sexual practices". In his book Specters of Marx , influential French poststructuralist thinker Jacques Derrida dealt with Stirner and his relationship with Marx while also analysing Stirner's concept of "specters" or "spooks". Gilles Deleuze , another key thinker associated with post-structuralism, mentions Stirner briefly in his book The Logic of Sense . Saul Newman calls Stirner
16539-460: The subject of issuing instructions on how the world ought to be: philosophy, at any rate, always comes too late to perform this function. As the thought of the world, it appears only at a time when actuality has gone through its formative process and attained its completed state [ sich fertig gemacht ]. This lesson of the concept is necessarily also apparent from history, namely that it is only when actuality [ Wirklichkeit ] has reached maturity that
16688-504: The supreme being), liberalism, and nationalism as well as capitalism, religion and statism , arguing: In the time of spirits thoughts grew till they overtopped my head, whose offspring they yet were; they hovered about me and convulsed me like fever-phantasies—an awful power. The thoughts had become corporeal on their own account, were ghosts, e. g. God, Emperor, Pope, Fatherland, etc. If I destroy their corporeity, then I take them back into mine, and say: "I alone am corporeal." And now I take
16837-497: The surveillance of Prince Sayn-Wittgenstein , the interior minister of Prussia and his reactionary circles in the Prussian court. In the remainder of his career, he made two trips to Weimar , where he met with Goethe for the last time, and to Brussels , the Northern Netherlands , Leipzig, Vienna , Prague, and Paris. During the last ten years of his life, Hegel did not publish another book but thoroughly revised
16986-452: The tendency of post-left anarchy which was influenced profoundly by Stirner in aspects such as the critique of ideology. Jason McQuinn says that "when I (and other anti-ideological anarchists) criticize ideology, it is always from a specifically critical, anarchist perspective rooted in both the skeptical, individualist-anarchist philosophy of Max Stirner". Bob Black and Feral Faun/Wolfi Landstreicher strongly adhere to Stirnerist egoism. In
17135-407: The text deals with Kuno Fischer's definition of sophism. With much wit, the self-contradictory nature of Fischer's criticism of sophism is exposed. Fischer had made a sharp distinction between sophism and philosophy while at the same time considering it as the "mirror image of philosophy". The sophists breathe "philosophical air" and were "dialectically inspired to a formal volubility". Stirner's answer
17284-664: The text which has become known as the Life of Jesus and a book-length manuscript titled "The Positivity of the Christian Religion." His relations with his employers becoming strained, Hegel accepted an offer mediated by Hölderlin to take up a similar position with a wine merchant's family in Frankfurt in 1797. There, Hölderlin exerted an important influence on Hegel's thought. In Berne, Hegel's writings had been sharply critical of orthodox Christianity, but in Frankfurt, under
17433-569: 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 adds that "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 considers the world and everything in it, including other persons, available to one's taking or use without moral constraint and that rights do not exist in regard to objects and people at all. He sees no rationality in taking
17582-442: The time of his unexpected death, he was in fact making plans to revise and republish it. As Hegel was no longer in need of money or credentials, H. S. Harris argues that "the only rational conclusion that can be drawn from his decision to republish the book… is that he still regarded the 'science of experience' as a valid project in itself" and one for which later system has no equivalent. There is, however, no scholarly consensus about
17731-438: The time. Stirner met with Engels many times and Engels even recalled that they were "great friends," but it is still unclear whether Marx and Stirner ever met. It does not appear that Stirner contributed much to the discussions, but he was a faithful member of the club and an attentive listener. The most-often reproduced portrait of Stirner is a cartoon by Engels, drawn forty years later from memory at biographer Mackay's request. It
17880-404: The treatise Humanism vs. Realism , written by Otto Friedrich Theodor Heinsius [ de ] . Stirner explains that education in either the classical humanist method or the practical realist method still lacks true value. He states that "the final goal of education can no longer be knowledge". Asserting that "only the spirit which understands itself is eternal", Stirner calls for a shift in
18029-457: The tripartite structure of his system) also owes much to the hermetic tradition, in particular, the work of Jakob Böhme . The conviction that philosophy must take the form of a system Hegel owed, most particularly, to his Tübingen roommates, Schelling and Hölderlin. Hegel also read widely and was much influenced by Adam Smith and other theorists of the political economy . It was Kant's critical philosophy that provided what Hegel took as
18178-596: The unfolding of the French Revolution with shared enthusiasm. Although the violence of the 1793 Reign of Terror dampened Hegel's hopes, he continued to identify with the moderate Girondin faction and never lost his commitment to the principles of 1789, which he expressed by drinking a toast to the storming of the Bastille every fourteenth of July. Schelling and Hölderlin immersed themselves in theoretical debates on Kantian philosophy , from which Hegel remained aloof. Hegel, at this time, envisaged his future as that of
18327-610: The university in October 1829, but his term ended in September 1830. Hegel was deeply disturbed by the riots for reform in Berlin in that year. In 1831 Frederick William III decorated him with the Order of the Red Eagle , 3rd Class for his service to the Prussian state. In August 1831, a cholera epidemic reached Berlin and Hegel left the city, taking up lodgings in Kreuzberg . Now in a weak state of health, Hegel seldom went out. As
18476-517: The victims of our society, but they will become completely 'disalienated,' and truly able to develop their individuality, only by advancing beyond communism." Stirner criticizes conventional notions of revolution , arguing that social movements aimed at overturning established ideals are tacitly idealist because they are implicitly aimed at the establishment of a new ideal thereafter. "Revolution and insurrection must not be looked upon as synonymous. The former consists in an overturning of conditions, of
18625-405: The whole neighborhood for a Bible as they did not have their own. In 1844, The Unique and Its Property was dedicated "to my sweetheart Marie Dähnhardt." Afterward, using Marie's inheritance, Stirner opened a dairy shop that handled the distribution of milk from dairy farmers into the city, but was unable to solicit the customers needed to keep the business afloat. It quickly failed and drove
18774-441: The words of one scholar, "It is Hegel's insight that reason itself has a history, that what counts as reason is the result of a development. This is something that Kant never imagines and that Herder only glimpses." In praise of Hegel's accomplishment, Walter Kaufmann writes that the guiding conviction of the Phenomenology is that a philosopher should not "confine him or herself to views that have been held but penetrate these to
18923-542: The world and masters it. Hegel biographer Terry Pinkard notes that Hegel's comment to Niethammer "is all the more striking since he had already composed the crucial section of the Phenomenology in which he remarked that the Revolution had now officially passed to another land (Germany) that would complete 'in thought' what the Revolution had only partially accomplished in practice." Although Napoleon had spared
19072-572: The world as what it is to me, as mine, as my property; I refer all to myself. Stirner's Critics ( Recensenten Stirners ) was published in September 1845 in Wigands Vierteljahrsschrift . It is a response, in which Stirner refers to himself in the third-person, to three critical reviews of The Unique and Its Property by Moses Hess in Die letzten Philosophen ( The Last Philosophers ), by a certain Szeliga (alias of an adherent of Bruno Bauer) in an article in
19221-478: The writers "indicate why social anarchists have been, and should be, interested in his ideas, saying that, John P. Clark presents a sympathetic and useful social anarchist critique of his work in Max Stirner's Egoism ." Daniel Guérin wrote that "Stirner accepted many of the premises of communism but with the following qualification: the profession of communist faith is a first step toward total emancipation of
19370-449: Was Agnes Burtz (1815–1838), the daughter of his landlady, whom he married on 12 December 1837. However, she died from complications with pregnancy in 1838. In 1843, he married Marie Dähnhardt , an intellectual associated with Die Freien . Their ad hoc wedding took place at Stirner's apartment, during which the participants were notably dressed casually , used copper rings as they had forgotten to buy wedding rings , and needed to search
19519-680: Was a significant influence on Marx and his magnum opus became a founding text of individualist anarchism . Edmund Husserl once warned a small audience about the "seducing power" of Der Einzige , but he never mentioned it in his writing. As the art critic and Stirner admirer Herbert Read observed, the book has remained "stuck in the gizzard" of Western culture since it first appeared. Many thinkers have read and been affected by The Unique and Its Property in their youth including Rudolf Steiner , Gustav Landauer , Victor Serge , Carl Schmitt and Jürgen Habermas . Few openly admit any influence on their own thinking. Ernst Jünger 's book Eumeswil , had
19668-414: Was also a typical product of early German romanticism . "Unity of life" was the phrase used by Hegel and his generation to express their concept of the highest good. It encompasses unity "with oneself, with others, and with nature. The main threat to such unity consists in division ( Entzweiung ) or alienation ( Entfremdung )." In this respect, Hegel was particularly taken with the phenomenon of love as
19817-628: Was buried on 16 November. In accordance with his wishes, Hegel was buried in the Dorotheenstadt cemetery next to Fichte and Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Solger . Hegel's illegitimate son, Ludwig Fischer, had died shortly before while serving with the Dutch army in Batavia and the news of his death never reached his father. Early the following year, Hegel's sister Christiane committed suicide by drowning. Hegel's two remaining sons – Karl , who became
19966-573: Was entitled 'Ein Apologet der Sophistik und "ein Philosophischer Reactionäre " ' and was published alongside 'Die Philosophischen Reactionäre'. Moreover, it seems rather odd that Otto Wigand would have published 'Edward's' piece back-to-back with an article that falsely attributed it to one of his personal associates at the time. And, indeed, as Mackay went on to argue, Stirner never refuted this attribution. This remains, however,
20115-759: Was first published in 1844 in Leipzig and has since appeared in numerous editions and translations. Stirner was born in Bayreuth , Bavaria . What little is known of his life is mostly due to the Scottish-born German writer John Henry Mackay , who wrote a biography of Stirner ( Max Stirner – sein Leben und sein Werk ), published in German in 1898 (enlarged 1910, 1914) and translated into English in 2005. Stirner
20264-568: Was in fact indifferent towards both "Art" and "Religion." Stirner thus mocked and radicalised Bauer's criticism of religion. Stirner's main work, The Unique and Its Property ( Der Einzige und sein Eigentum ), appeared in Leipzig in October 1844, with as year of publication mentioned 1845. In The Unique and Its Property , Stirner launches a radical anti-authoritarian and individualist critique of contemporary Prussian society and modern western society as such. He offers an approach to human existence in which he depicts himself as "the unique one",
20413-915: Was influential to many social anarchists such as anarcha-feminists Emma Goldman and Federica Montseny . In European individualist anarchism , he influenced its major proponents after him such as Émile Armand , Han Ryner , Renzo Novatore, John Henry Mackay, Miguel Giménez Igualada and Lev Chernyi . In American individualist anarchism , he found adherence in Benjamin Tucker and his magazine Liberty while these abandoned natural rights positions for egoism. Several periodicals "were undoubtedly influenced by Liberty' s presentation of egoism". They included I , published by Clarence Lee Swartz and edited by William Walstein Gordak and J. William Lloyd (all associates of Liberty ); and The Ego and The Egoist , both of which were edited by Edward H. Fulton. Among
20562-530: Was much more closely related to "Philosophy" than to "Religion", based on their shared determinacy and clarity, and a common ethical root. However, Stirner went beyond both Hegel and Bauer's criticism by asserting that "Art" rather created an object for "Religion" and could thus by no means be related to what Stirner considered—in opposition with Hegel and Bauer—to be "Philosophy", stating: [Philosophy] neither stands opposed to an Object, as Religion, nor makes one, as Art, but rather places its pulverizing hand upon all
20711-427: Was obviously a student of Hegel, like his contemporaries Ludwig Feuerbach and Bruno Bauer, but this does not necessarily make him an Hegelian. Contrary to the Young Hegelians, Stirner scorned all attempts at an immanent critique of Hegel and the Enlightenment and renounced Bauer and Feuerbach's emancipatory claims as well. Contrary to Hegel, who considered the given as an inadequate embodiment of rational, Stirner leaves
20860-405: Was opposed to communism for the same reasons he opposed christianity , capitalism , humanism , liberalism , property rights and nationalism , seeing them as forms of authority over the individual and as purveyors of ideologies he could not reconcile himself with, he has also influenced many anarcho-communists and post-left anarchists . The writers of An Anarchist FAQ report that "many in
21009-482: Was propelled by their own egoism and desires and that those who accepted this—as willing egoists—could freely live their individual desires, while those who did not—as unwilling egoists—will falsely believe they are fulfilling another cause while they are secretly fulfilling their own desires for happiness and security. The willing egoist would see that they could act freely, unbound from obedience to sacred but artificial truths like law, rights, morality, and religion. Power
21158-680: Was published in 1807. This is the first time that, at the age of thirty-six, Hegel lays out "his own distinctive approach" and adopts an "outlook that is recognizably 'Hegelian' to the philosophical problems of post-Kantian philosophy". Yet, the book was poorly understood even by Hegel's contemporaries and received mostly negative reviews. To this day, the Phenomenology is infamous for, among other things, its conceptual and allusive density, idiosyncratic terminology, and confusing transitions. Its most comprehensive commentary, scholar H. S. Harris 's two-volume Hegel's Ladder ( The Pilgrimage of Reason and The Odyssey of Spirit ), runs more than three times
21307-526: Was secretary to the revenue office at the court of Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg . Hegel's mother, Maria Magdalena Louisa Hegel, née Fromm (1741–1783), was the daughter of a lawyer at the High Court of Justice at the Württemberg court Ludwig Albrecht Fromm (1696–1758). She died of bilious fever when Hegel was thirteen. Hegel and his father also caught the disease but narrowly survived. Hegel had
21456-485: Was signed G. Edward and its authorship has been disputed ever since John Henry Mackay "cautiously" attributed it to Stirner and included it in his collection of Stirner's lesser writings. It was first translated into English in 2011 by Widukind De Ridder and the introductory note explains: Mackay based his attribution of this text to Stirner on Kuno Fischer's subsequent reply to it, in which the latter, 'with such determination', identified G. Edward as Max Stirner. The article
21605-448: Was tainted with the same idealism as Christianity and infused with superstitious ideas like morality and justice. Stirner's principal critique of socialism and communism was that they ignored the individual; they aimed to hand ownership over to the abstraction society, which meant that no existing person actually owned anything. The Anarchist FAQ writes that "[w]hile some may object to our attempt to place egoism and communism together, it
21754-505: Was the only child of Albert Christian Heinrich Schmidt (1769–1807) and Sophia Elenora Reinlein (1778–1839), who were Lutherans . His father died of tuberculosis on 19 April 1807 at the age of 37. In 1809, his mother remarried to Heinrich Ballerstedt (a pharmacist ) and settled in West Prussian Kulm (now Chełmno , Poland). When Stirner turned 20, he attended the University of Berlin , where he studied philology . He attended
21903-445: Was therefore very familiar with the passage regarding Stirner. While Der Einzige was a critical success and attracted much reaction from famous philosophers after publication, it was out of print and the notoriety that it had provoked had faded many years before Stirner's death. However, since his death, it has seen a revival in publication in multiple languages. Stirner had a destructive impact on left-Hegelianism , but his philosophy
22052-541: Was unable to obtain a full-time teaching post from the Prussian government. While in Berlin in 1841, Stirner participated in discussions with a group of young philosophers called Die Freien (The Free Ones), whom historians have subsequently categorized as the Young Hegelians . Some of the best known names in 19th century literature and philosophy were involved with this group, including Karl Marx , Friedrich Engels , Bruno Bauer and Arnold Ruge . While some of
22201-639: Was written in the context of the recent 1848 revolutions in German states and is mainly a collection of the works of others selected and translated by Stirner. The introduction and some additional passages were Stirner's work. Edmund Burke and Auguste Comte are quoted to show two opposing views of revolution . Stirner's work did not go unnoticed among his contemporaries. Stirner's attacks on ideology—in particular Feuerbach's humanism—forced Feuerbach into print. Moses Hess (at that time close to Marx) and Szeliga (pseudonym of Franz Zychlin von Zychlinski, an adherent of Bruno Bauer) also replied to Stirner, who answered
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