Egoist anarchism oranarcho-egoism, often shortened toegoism, is aschool of anarchist thought that originated in thephilosophy ofMax Stirner, a 19th-century philosopher whose "name appears with familiar regularity in historically orientated surveys of anarchist thought as one of the earliest and best known exponents ofindividualist anarchism".[1] Egoist anarchism places the individual at the forefront, crafting ethical standards and actions based on this premise.[citation needed] It advocates personal liberation and rejects subordination, emphasizing the absolute priority of self-interest.
Max Stirner's philosophy is usually called "egoism". He says that the egoist rejects pursuit of devotion to "a great idea, a good cause, a doctrine, a system, a lofty calling", saying that the egoist has no political calling, but rather "lives themselves out" without regard to "how well or ill humanity may fare thereby".[2] Stirner held that the only limitation on the rights of the individual is one's power to obtain what they desire.[3] He proposes that most commonly accepted social institutions—including the notion of State, property as a right, natural rights in general and the very notion of society—were mere phantasms or "spooks" in the mind. Stirner wanted to "abolish not only the state but also society as an institution responsible for its members".[4]
Max Stirner's idea of theunion of egoists (German:Verein von Egoisten) was first expounded inThe Ego and Its Own. The union is understood as a non-systematic association, which Stirner proposed in contradistinction to thestate.[5] The union is understood as a relation between egoists which is continually renewed by all parties' support through an act of will.[6] The union requires that all parties participate out of a conscious egoism. If one party silently finds themselves to be suffering, but puts up and keeps the appearance, the union has degenerated into something else.[6] This union is not seen as anauthority above a person's own will. This idea has received interpretations for politics, economics, romance and sex.
Stirner claimed that property comes about through might: "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! [...] 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; [...]. Whoever knows how to take, to defend, the thing, to him belongs property".[7] His concept of "egoistic property" not only rejects moral restraint on how one obtains and uses things, but includes other people as well.[8]
TheScottish-born German writerJohn Henry Mackay found out about Stirner while reading a copy ofFriedrich Albert Lange'sHistory of Materialism and Critique of its Present Importance. Mackay later looked for a copy ofThe Ego and Its Own and after being fascinated with it wrote a biography of Stirner (Max Stirner –sein Leben und sein Werk), published in German in 1898.[9] Mackay's propaganda of Stirnerist egoism and of male homosexual and bisexual rights influencedAdolf Brand who in 1896 published the world's first ongoing homosexual publication,Der Eigene.[10] The name of that publication was taken from Stirner—who had greatly influenced the young Brand—and refers to Stirner's concept of "self-ownership" of the individual.Der Eigene concentrated on cultural and scholarly material and may have averaged around 1500 subscribers per issue during its lifetime.Benjamin Tucker followed this journal from the United States.[11]
Another later German anarchist publication influenced deeply by Stirner wasDer Einzige. It appeared in 1919 as a weekly, then sporadically until 1925 and was edited by cousins Anselm Ruest (pseudonym for Ernst Samuel) and Mynona (pseudonym forSalomo Friedlaender). Its title was adopted from the bookDer Einzige und sein Eigentum (The Ego and Its Own) byMax Stirner. Another influence was the thought of German philosopherFriedrich Nietzsche.[12] The publication was connected to the localexpressionist artistic current and the transition from it towardsdada.[13]
Stirner's influence also expressed itself in a different way in Spanish and French individualist anarchism: "The theoretical positions and the vital experiences of French individualism are deeply iconoclastic and scandalous, even within libertarian circles. The call of nudistnaturism (seeanarcho-naturism), the strong defense of birth control methods, the idea of "unions of egoists" with the sole justification of sexual practices, that will try to put in practice, not without difficulties, will establish a way of thought and action, and will result in sympathy within some, and a strong rejection within others".[14]
Illegalism was an anarchist practice that developed primarily in France, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland during the early 1900s that found justification in Stirner's philosophy.[15] The illegalists openly embracedcriminality as a lifestyle. Illegalists usually did not seek moral basis for their actions, recognizing only the reality of "might" rather than "right". For the most part, illegal acts were done simply to satisfy personal desires and needs, not for some greater ideal.[16]
As a reaction to this, Frenchanarchist communists attempted to distance themselves from illegalism andanarchist individualism as a whole. In August 1913, theFédération Communiste-Anarchistes (FCA) condemnedindividualism asbourgeois and more in keeping withcapitalism thancommunism. An article believed to have been written byPeter Kropotkin in the British anarchist paperFreedom argued: "Simple-minded young comrades were often led away by the illegalists' apparent anarchist logic; outsiders simply felt disgusted with anarchist ideas and definitely stopped their ears to any propaganda".[17]
Some American individualist anarchists such asBenjamin Tucker abandonednatural rights positions and converted toMax Stirner's egoist anarchism. Rejecting the idea of moral rights, Tucker said that there were only two rights, "the right of might" and "the right of contract". He also said after converting to egoist individualism: "In times past...it was my habit to talk glibly of the right of man to land. It was a bad habit, and I long ago sloughed it off....Man's only right to land is his might over it".[18] In adopting Stirnerite egoism, Tucker rejected natural rights which had long been considered the foundation of his beliefs. This rejection galvanized the movement into fierce debates, with the natural rights proponents accusing the egoists of destroying individualist anarchism itself. So bitter was the conflict that a number of natural rights proponents withdrew from the pages ofLiberty in protest even though they had hitherto been among its frequent contributors. Thereafter,Liberty championed egoism although its general content did not change significantly.[19]
Several periodicals were undoubtedly influenced byLiberty's presentation of egoism. They included the following:I published byClarence Lee Swartz, edited by William Walstein Gordak andJ. William Lloyd (all associates ofLiberty); andThe Ego andThe Egoist, both of which were edited by Edward H. Fulton. Among the egoist papers that Tucker followed were the GermanDer Eigene, edited byAdolf Brand; andThe Eagle and The Serpent, issued from London. The latter, the most prominent English language egoist journal, was published from 1898 to 1900 with the subtitleA Journal of Egoistic Philosophy and Sociology.[19]
American anarchists who adhered to egoism include Benjamin Tucker, John Beverley Robinson,Steven T. Byington,Hutchins Hapgood,James L. Walker,Victor Yarros and Edward H. Fulton.[19] John Beverley Robinson wrote an essay called "Egoism" in which he states: "Modern egoism, as propounded by Stirner and Nietzsche, and expounded byIbsen,Shaw and others, is all these; but it is more. It is the realization by the individual that they are an individual; that, as far as they are concerned, they are the only individual".[20]Steven T. Byington was a one-time proponent ofGeorgism who later converted to egoist Stirnerist positions after associating with Benjamin Tucker. He is known for translating two important anarchist works into English from German: Stirner'sThe Ego and Its Own andPaul Eltzbacher'sAnarchism: Exponents of the Anarchist Philosophy (also published by Dover with the titleThe Great Anarchists: Ideas and Teachings of Seven Major Thinkers).
James L. Walker (sometimes known by the pen name Tak Kak) was one of the main contributors to Benjamin Tucker'sLiberty. He published his major philosophical work calledPhilosophy of Egoism in the May 1890 to September 1891 in issues of the publicationEgoism.[21] James L. Walker published the workThe Philosophy of Egoism in which he argued that egoism "implies a rethinking of the self-other relationship, nothing less than "a complete revolution in the relations of mankind" that avoids both the "archist" principle that legitimates domination and the "moralist" notion that elevates self-renunciation to a virtue. Walker describes himself as an "egoistic anarchist" who believed in both contract and cooperation as practical principles to guide everyday interactions".[22] For Walker, the egoist rejects notions of duty and is indifferent to the hardships of the oppressed whose consent to their oppression enslaves not only them, but those who do not consent.[23] The egoist comes to self-consciousness, not for the God's sake, not for humanity's sake, but for his or her own sake.[24] For him, "[c]ooperation and reciprocity are possible only among those who are unwilling to appeal to fixed patterns of justice in human relationships and instead focus on a form of reciprocity, aunion of egoists, in which person each finds pleasure and fulfillment in doing things for others".[25] Walker thought that "what really defines egoism is not mere self-interest, pleasure, or greed; it is the sovereignty of the individual, the full expression of the subjectivity of the individual ego".[26]
Friedrich Nietzsche (seeanarchism and Friedrich Nietzsche) and Stirner were frequently compared by French "literary anarchists" and anarchist interpretations of Nietzschean ideas appear to have also been influential in the United States.[27] One researcher notes: "Indeed, translations of Nietzsche's writings in the United States very likely appeared first inLiberty, the anarchist journal edited by Benjamin Tucker". He adds that "Tucker preferred the strategy of exploiting his writings, but proceeding with due caution: 'Nietzsche says splendid things, – often, indeed, Anarchist things, – but he is no Anarchist. It is of the Anarchists, then, to intellectually exploit this would-be exploiter. He may be utilized profitably, but not prophetably'".[28]
In the 1960s, the Frenchanarcho-communistDaniel Guérin inAnarchism: From Theory to Practice says that Stirner "rehabilitated the individual at a time when the philosophical field was dominated by Hegeliananti-individualism and most reformers in the social field had been led by the misdeeds of bourgeois egotism to stress its opposite" and pointed to "the boldness and scope of his thought".[29]
In the United Kingdom,Herbert Read was influenced highly by egoism as he later came close toexistentialism. InHerbert Read Reassessed David Goodway writes that in Read'sEducation Through Art (1943): "Here we have the egoism of Max Stirner assimilated in theanarchist communism of Peter Kropotkin". He cites Read for this affirmation which shows egoism's influence:
Uniqueness has no practical value in isolation. One of the most certain lessons of modern psychology and of recent historical experiences, is that education must be a process, not only of individuation, but also of integration, which is the reconciliation of individual uniqueness with social unity [...] the individual will be "good" in the degree that his individuality is realized within the organic wholeness of the community.[30]
...the dadaist objections to Hiller´s activism werethemselves present in expressionism as demonstrated by the seminal roles played by the philosophies ofOtto Gross and Salomo Friedlaender.
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