MAX STIRNER Flashcards
What form of anarchism was Stirner crucial in developing?
Nihilism, which proposes the abolition of both state and society
What concept did Stirner develop?
The concept of the self-interested ego
What is Stirner’s key work?
The Ego and His Own (1845)
what was Stirner opposed to?
The state, region and ideology
What ideologies did Stirner see as a denial of individual conscience?
Socialism and Marxism, calling these threats to the exercise of egoism ‘spooks’ and ‘ghosts’, meaning shadowy illusions which appeared to promote individual liberty hut in practice were suppressing it
What did Stirner argue everybody should develop in place of ideology?
A sense of egoism, as egoism spread it would begin to challenge the authority of the state, religion and ideology in general
What did Stirner want egoist to form?
‘Unions of egoism’, collective groups that saw their self-interest in terms of mutual interest, these unions gradually replacing the state
What was Stirner view on human nature?
Pessimistic
What did Stirner champion?
Unrestrained individual liberty
What was Stirner view on liberty?
State and private property be abolished to establish the widest possible freedom and any moral restraints that might inhibit the individual
Which syndicalist did Stirner share determination to resist morality?
George Sorel
What was stirner’s views of human nature
We are fundamentally self-interested egoists
What was stirner’s view of the state
The state is the complete denial of of our egoism and individualism
What was stirner’s view of society
Society of any kind restraints. We must by fully self-reliant
What was stirner’s view of the economy
The accumulation and retention of private property is our main economic motivation
