Max STIRNER and anarchism

In today's class we are going to talk about the philosopher Johann Kaspar Schmidt (1806-1856), better known by the pseudonym of Max Stirner. Stirner is one of the promoters of anarchism with his work The only one and his property (1844-1845) in which he tells us about selfish anarchism or individualistic, according to which the individual must be a be supreme and freed from the impositions of religion (God) and the State. Thesis that would later directly influence the superman theory by Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

If you want to know more about Max Stirner and anarchism, in this lesson of a PROFESSOR we make you a summary with the most important points of his thought Let's start!

Index

1. Max Stirner: Brief Biography
2. The individual anarchism of Max Stirner
3. Society in Anarchism by Max Stirner
4. Religion in Anarchism by Max Stirner

Johann Kaspar Schmidt nation in 1806 in Bayreuth (Bavaria, Germany), within a humble family

After his university period, Stirner gradually entered left-wing political groups and frequented philosophical gatherings, such as the group The Free Ones or the Young Hegelian Club (1837-1842)”. Where he befriended engels or Bruno Bauer.

Parallel to this activity, he worked as a publicist, translator or trainee teacher, until from 1839 he worked as teacher in a school for girls in Berlin and as articulist of the newspapers El Ferrocarril or La Gaceta Renana (1841-1842).

Works by Max Stirner

It is precisely in the 1940s, after leaving his teaching position, that our protagonist published his most important works and essays, such as:

1. The only one and the property of him, 1845: Work where we find the basis of all his thought and that was prohibited.
2. History of the reaction, 1856 (unfinished): Where he talks about the German Revolution of 1848 (in which he was not a participant).

The last years of his life were marked by his time in prison for financial debts (in 1853 and 1854) and in June 1956 he died practically destitute. However, today he is considered the father of the selfish or individual anarchism. Thesis that later influenced authors such as Friedrich Nietzsche or William Godwin.

To know the relationship between Max Stirner and anarchism it is important that you know that he was the founder of the individualist anarchist theory.

Our protagonist establishes that the individual is the center of all reflection and reality itself. Therefore, it speaks to us of an individual in himself and of the i only, that is characterized by:

• The individual must be free to act as he wishes outside the institutions and of religion: Freedom is in self-freedom: “…One must know how to break his own faith and even his oath if he wants to determine himself...”
• His limit is in getting what he wants.
• The individual is the source and origin of all morality and law: He must reject the institutions (State, law or religion that influence us and that are our yoke)
• The whole world is his property.
• The man is the foundation of all relationships from its absolute uniqueness, therefore, the unrelatedness is found in the lack of uniqueness.
• The individual must not be a slave to a society that ends critical thinking and promotes the material and the superficial.
• The individual must not look to the past and think about the future: We should not justify our behavior in acts of the past. We just have to look at the past to deconstruct and self-affirm ourselves.

For Stirner, society is extremely controlled by the state (a forced association for the individual) through authoritarian institutions that dominate us from childhood, such as The education (“…The State gives me an education and an adequate instruction for him and not for me…”).Thus, these institutions are "ghosts" that exercise a coercive power over the being and society a prison for the individual..

In this way, our protagonist proposes a society that he defines as the "Union of the Egoists". Based on a voluntary association-relationship, in reciprocity, in constant renewal and in the will of individuals (support from all parties).

“...The State and I are enemies. I, the egoist, do not have the welfare of this "human society" at heart. I don't sacrifice anything to it, I just use it; but in order to use it fully, I rather transform it into my property and my creature, that is, I annihilate it and form in its place the Union of the Egoists…”

Likewise, he tells us that it is a society in which the dominant and imposed concepts have been overcome, in which it is possible change social relations and in which the individual sees another individual as a tool or means to achieve their own objectives.

According to Stirner, religions are based on empty concepts and their objectives are: control the individual, do it slave having authority over him, using him for his selfish cause, and reify your mind. Therefore, for our protagonist, we must free ourselves from divine sovereignty and create a system anticlerical.

“…Before the sacred one loses all his power, he feels powerless and humiliates himself. Nothing, however, is sacred in itself, I only consecrate it. What canonizes is my thought, my judgement, in a word, my conscience…”

Finally, he states that in fact there is nothing sacred, but it is we ourselves who establish what is sacred, since we give it such a role and put it above us, taking away our own freedom and power. That is to say, that the religion it is a creation of the human being that ends up dominating it.

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Stirner, M. (1976) The only one and his property. Pablos Publisher: Mexico.