Misplaced Pages

#171828

103-421: Stirner is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Max Stirner , pseudonym for Johann Caspar Schmidt (1806–1856), German philosopher and journalist Karl Stirner (1923–2016), American-German sculptor Karl Stirner (painter) (1882–1943), German painter, watercolorist, illustrator and writer [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with

206-426: A "creative nothing", a thing that cannot be bound by ideology, inaccessible to representation in language. Die Freien The German philosophers who wrote immediately after the death of Hegel in 1831 can be roughly divided into the politically and religiously radical ' left ', or 'young' Hegelians and the more conservative ' right ', or 'old' Hegelians. The Right Hegelians followed the master in believing that

309-412: 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

412-579: A Hegelian framework – against both the supernatural elements of the Gospel and the idea that the Christian church was the sole bearer of absolute truth. He believed the Gospel stories were mythical responses to the situation the Jewish community at the time found themselves in. The idea that 'infinite reason' or 'the absolute' (i.e. broadly Hegelian notions of God) could be incarnated within a finite human being

515-727: A bourgeois egalitarian state with a constitutional monarchy, Protestant religion (though without a dominating state church) and freedom of speech. Another nucleus of the Young Hegelian movement was the Doctor's Club in Berlin (later known as 'the Free'), a society of intellectuals founded in 1837 and led by Bruno Bauer who, by 1838, was writing the most anti-Christian pamphlets in Germany at the time. The radicalization and politicization of

618-536: 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

721-546: 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

824-493: A free and united Germany , Arnold Ruge shared Hegel's belief that history is a progressive advance towards the realization of freedom, and that freedom is attained in the State, the creation of the rational general will . At the same time he criticized Hegel for having given an interpretation of history which was closed to the future, in the sense that it left no room for novelty. Max Stirner would occasionally socialize with

927-423: 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

1030-609: 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

1133-455: 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

SECTION 10

#1732772663172

1236-407: A reaction to 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

1339-612: A shift in 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"

1442-468: 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

1545-751: 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

1648-522: 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

1751-627: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Max Stirner 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 ),

1854-633: 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

1957-487: 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

2060-577: Is important to note that the groups were not as unified or as self-conscious as the labels 'right' and 'left' make them appear. The term 'Right Hegelian', for example, was never actually used by those to whom it was later ascribed, namely, Hegel's direct successors at the Fredrick William University (now the Humboldt University of Berlin ). The term was first used by David Strauss to describe Bruno Bauer —who actually

2163-528: 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

SECTION 20

#1732772663172

2266-560: 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,

2369-486: 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

2472-544: 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,

2575-534: 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

2678-544: The dialectic of history had come to an end—Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit reveals itself to be the culmination of history as the reader reaches its end. Here he meant that reason and freedom had reached their maximums as they were embodied by the existing Prussian state. And here the master’s claim was viewed as paradox, at best; the Prussian regime indeed provided extensive civil and social services , good universities, high employment and some industrialization , but it

2781-483: 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

2884-443: The surname Stirner . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to the link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stirner&oldid=1190672159 " Categories : Surnames German-language surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description

2987-467: 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

3090-403: 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

3193-477: The Unique One's unique nature is derived from comparison, The Individual exists for itself, and is the existence of all ideas- it is nothing more than peculiarity and uniqueness itself. Karl Schmidt was the last notable Young Hegelian, and arguably the most obscure of the notable Young Hegelians. Edgar Bauer , 1820–1886, was the younger brother of Bruno Bauer. According to Lawrence S. Stepelevich, Edgar Bauer

Stirner - Misplaced Pages Continue

3296-551: 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

3399-472: The Young Hegelian movement was the journal Hallische Jahrbücher (1838–41) (later Deutsche Jahrbücher (1841–43)) which was edited by Arnold Ruge and received contributions from many of the other Young Hegelians (and, in its infancy, Old Hegelians). It attacked Catholicism and orthodox Protestantism but was initially politically moderate, taking the line that Prussia was the embodiment of historical reason, which required that it evolve by peaceful reform towards

3502-538: The Young Hegelians dropped much of Hegel's political theory and for the most part turned to republicanism – the exceptions being Moses Hess , who mixed Hegelianism with communism, and of course Marx and Engels. In all these areas a central change was the adoption of certain ideas of Johann Gottlieb Fichte , especially the notion that the self-transcendence of the world by man was a possibility and duty, but one that could never be conclusively fulfilled. Although they spread democratic ideas throughout Germany to some extent,

3605-422: The Young Hegelians held the theory to be applicable to any state backed by any religion. All laws were ultimately based on religious tenets. As such, their plan to undermine what they felt was the corrupt and despotic state apparatus was to attack the philosophical basis of religion. David Strauss wrote Das Leben Jesu ( The Life of Jesus/The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined ) in 1835, in which he argued – in

3708-470: 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

3811-401: The Young Hegelians, attacking their views in works such as The German Ideology . Marx concluded that religion is not the basis of the establishment's power, but rather ownership of capital—processes that employ technologies, land, money and especially human labor-power to create surplus-value —lie at the heart of the establishment's power. Marx (and Engels) considered religion as a component of

3914-421: The Young Hegelians, but held views much to the contrary of these thinkers, all of whom he consequently satirized and mocked in his nominalist magnum-opus Der Einzige und Sein Eigentum ( The Unique and Its Property ). Another Young Hegelian, Karl Marx , was at first sympathetic with this strategy of attacking Christianity to undermine the Prussian establishment, but later formed divergent ideas and broke with

4017-422: 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 ,

4120-531: 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

4223-412: The antithesis of all human flaws and shortcomings. Such view later influenced Karl Marx 's thought, who coined the expression " opium of the people " to describe religion in his Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right . Carl Nauwerck was a German orientalist, theologian and lecturer of Hegelian philosophy in Berlin who lost his teaching license along with Bruno Bauer in 1842. As an advocate of

Stirner - Misplaced Pages Continue

4326-461: 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"

4429-891: 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

4532-457: 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

4635-536: The difference between civil society , which Hegel held to be the sphere where individual interest is pursued in conflict with the interests of others and the state, where such conflicts are transcended, was in fact misplaced, the goal of the proletariat being in fact to abolish such differences. Other Young Hegelians had other qualms about Hegel’s philosophy . David Strauss did not accept Hegel’s claims of Christian historicity renouncing any historical basis to Christianity in favour of its demythification, claiming that

4738-431: 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,

4841-547: 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

4944-679: The entire story of Jesus was a myth . He found no record of anyone named "Yeshua of Nazareth" in any then-extant Roman records. Such citations actually exist, notably by the Roman historian Tacitus in his Annals and the Jewish historian Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews . Bauer argued that almost all prominent historical figures in antiquity are referenced in other works (e.g., Aristophanes mocking Socrates in his plays), but as he could not find any such references to Jesus, he argued that it

5047-567: 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

5150-413: 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

5253-443: The group, although information only survives for Stirner's second wife, Marie Dähnhardt . Moreover, after the owner stopped lending them money to drink, they resorted to jokingly begging on the street. However, Mackay claims that they drank little and drunkenness was uncommon. Marx would not accept that the state was the seat of universality and rationality , i.e. that it was inherently rational; and made it his goal to prove that

SECTION 50

#1732772663172

5356-589: The group. Attendees included Max Stirner , Bruno Bauer , Arnold Ruge and Friedrich Engels , among others. Although not much is known about the group, with John Henry Mackay 's biography of Max Stirner appearing to be the most authoritative source, involvement appears to have been a formative period for Engels (who wrote with Karl Marx The Manifesto of the Communist Party , Wage-Labour and Capital and The German Ideology shortly after involvement) and Stirner (who wrote The Ego and Its Own around

5459-446: The history of Hegelianism and derived the truth that, "I am only myself." At the end of the dialectic, where the individual exists "by grace of spirit, the law of spirit is applied to spirit itself, and is dragged to its grave". The individual remains as the evidence of the dialectic, and where the physical and psychical worlds merge, the individual stands atop the rubble. The Individual is different from Stirner's Unique One in that whilst

5562-444: 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

5665-436: 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

5768-616: The ideological superstructure of societies, and a pre-rational mode of thought, which nonetheless was wielded by ruling elites to obscure social relationships including the true basis of political power. In this latter sense, he described religion as "the opium of the people ." August Cieszkowski focused on Hegel's view of world history and reformed it to better accommodate Hegelian Philosophy itself by dividing it into Past, Present, and Future. In his Prolegomena to Historiosophy , Cieszkowski argues that we have gone from Art (the Past), which

5871-434: 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

5974-421: 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

6077-496: The intellectual exertions of the Young Hegelians failed to connect with or stir any wider social movement, and when the Deutsche Jahrbücher was suppressed in 1843 the movement started to disintegrate. The Young Hegelians interpreted the entire state apparatus as ultimately claiming legitimacy based upon religious tenets. While this thought was clearly inspired by the function of Lutheranism in contemporary Prussia ,

6180-545: 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

6283-684: 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 ,

SECTION 60

#1732772663172

6386-466: 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

6489-476: 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

6592-538: The movement occurred when the new king, Frederick William IV , upon whom the Young Hegelians had pinned their hopes of political reform, came to power in 1840 and curtailed political freedom and religious tolerance more than before. In philosophy the radicalization took the form of a breach with Hegel’s doctrine of the Prussian state as the fulfillment of history. In religion it manifested as a rejection of Christianity even in its most diluted pantheistic form and an adoption of atheism (led by Bauer and Feuerbach ). In politics

6695-464: 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

6798-414: 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

6901-849: The same time). Consequently, the overall influence of the group to modern political thought can be considered monumental. As a cartoon by Engels shows, their small meetings were also attended by a "secret policeman", reporting on their activities to the authorities. The members of Die Freien held widely diverging views and met for the purpose of debate. They did not represent a unified political or ideological outlook, though most of them have subsequently been seen as "Young Hegelians." They usually met at Hippel's Wine Bar in central Berlin . According to John Henry Mackay 's biography of Max Stirner, they were well known for using foul language, at one point resulting in Arnold Ruge chastising them before storming out. Reportedly, there were many women involved with

7004-633: 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

7107-693: The stories found in the Bible should be understood as myths "constructed not by individuals but by the earliest Christian communities in response to the teaching of Christ and the Messianic tradition which they had inherited from the Old Testament ". The Young Hegelians were not popular at the university due to their radical views on religion and society. Bauer was dismissed from his teaching post in 1842, and Marx and other students were warned that they should not bother submitting their dissertations at

7210-505: 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

7313-504: 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

7416-453: 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

7519-407: 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

7622-570: 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

7725-535: The time, King Wilhelm III , under the influence of his relatively enlightened minister of religion, health and education Altenstein , allowed pretty much anything to be said about religion so long as there was practical obedience to his enforced merging of Calvinism and Lutheranism and spreading of Protestantism in Catholic areas. Thus the Young Hegelians at first found it easier to direct their critical energies towards religion than politics. A major consolidator of

7828-440: 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

7931-518: 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

8034-405: 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

8137-573: 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

8240-479: 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

8343-449: 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

8446-685: 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

8549-616: Was a stage of contemplating the Real, to Philosophy (the Present), which is a contemplation of the Ideal, and that since Hegel's philosophy was the summing-up and perfection of Philosophy, the time of Philosophy was up, and the time for a new era has dawned – the era of Action. In The Realm of Understanding and the Individual ( Das Verstandestum und das Individuum ), Karl Schmidt examined

8652-475: Was a typically 'Left', or Young, Hegelian. It was the outcry caused by David Strauss' The Life of Jesus in 1835 which first made the 'Young Hegelians' aware of their existence as a distinct group, and it was their attitude to religion that distinguished the left and right from then onwards ( August Cieszkowski is a possible exception to this rule). Despite the lack of political freedom of speech in Prussia at

8755-573: 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,

8858-761: 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

8961-569: 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",

9064-916: 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

9167-464: Was likely that the entire story of Jesus was fabricated. Ludwig Feuerbach wrote a psychological profile of a believer called The Essence of Christianity ( Das Wesen des Christentums ). He argues that the believer is presented with a doctrine that encourages the projection of fantasies onto the world. Believers are encouraged to believe in miracles, and to idealize all their weaknesses by imagining an omnipotent, omniscient, immortal God who represents

9270-530: 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

9373-490: 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

9476-405: 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

9579-399: Was particularly absurd. Moreover, the original teachings of Jesus , which were aimed at aiding the poor and downtrodden, had slowly been perverted and usurped by the establishment to manipulate and oppress the populaces of the world by promising them a reward in the afterlife if they refrained from rebellion against the powers that be in this life. Bruno Bauer went further, and claimed that

9682-482: 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

9785-423: Was ranked as rather backward politically compared with the more liberal constitutional monarchies of France and Britain. The Young Hegelians drew on both Hegel's veneration of Reason and Freedom (as the guiding forces of history) and his idea that the 'Spirit' overcame all that opposed reason and freedom. They wanted to overcome the religious dogma and political authoritarianism in Germany at that time. It

9888-485: 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

9991-450: 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

10094-467: Was the most anarchistic of the Young Hegelians, and "...it is possible to discern, in the early writings of Edgar Bauer, the theoretical justification of political terrorism." Die Freien (The Free Ones) was a 19th-century circle of Young Hegelians formed at the University of Berlin and gathering for informal discussion over a period of a few years. Its leader was Bruno Bauer , a student who had attended Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 's lectures and

10197-508: 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

10300-468: Was then asked to defend the position of the Old Hegelians against the claims of David Strauss 's Life of Jesus . After reviewing the book, Bauer was converted and became even more radical than Strauss, becoming an atheist and arguing that Christianity was not only historically baseless, but it was also irrational and a barrier to progress. Later in his life, he would disassociate himself from

10403-448: 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

10506-542: 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

10609-639: 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

#171828