Abstract
Max Stirner has often been considered a Young Hegelian, or even the ‘last Hegelian’. Such a reading implies that Stirner drew the logical conclusions of Hegel’s philosophy, thereby ignoring the way his thought marks a fundamental break with the philosophical tradition as a whole. Stirner’s notions of ‘egoism’, ‘ownness’ and ‘Der Einzige’ (‘the ego’) were not philosophical concepts but, in a Foucauldian sense, tools to dismantle the subject-object dichotomy and its social and political bearings in the wake of modernity. It is argued, furthermore, that his ideas cannot be reduced to a traditional philosophy of the subject (existentialism). This chapter analyses both Stirner’s quest to ‘dissolve’ philosophy, as well as its radical implications for political theory as a whole. Stirner’s notion of Der Einzige not only questions the revolutionary subject in a strictly Marxist sense, but eventually any form of (political) subjectivity. Stirner’s radical criticism of the emancipatory claims of his contemporaries allows us to question and rethink the concepts of contemporary social and political theory, not only by criticizing the way political power is commonly conceived and by refraining from positing essentialist guarantees, but also by laying bare the problem of political subjectivity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
G. Penzo (2006) Die existentielle Empörung: Max Stirner zwischen Philosophie und Anarchie, (Berlin: Peter Lang);
F. Copleston (2003) A History of Philosophy: 18th and 19th century German philosophy, (London: Continuum), p. 303;
H. Arvon (1954) Aux sources de l’existentialisme: Max Stirner, (Paris: PUF).
R. W. K. Paterson (1971) The Nihilistic Egoist Max Stirner, (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
The existing translation is abridged: M. Stirner (1977) ‘Stirner’s Critics’, The Philosophical Forum, 8/2–3–4): 66–80.
In the translation of ‘Kunst und Religion’ the first sentence on Hegel is omitted: M. Stirner, ‘Art and Religion’ in L. Stepelevich (1983) The Young Hegelians: An Anthology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). We will use our own translations and put the original quote in note.
M. Tomba (2005) Krise und Kritik bei Bruno Bauer: Kategorien des Politischen im nachhegelschen Denken, (Frankfurt: Peter Lang), pp. 24–27.
W. J. Brazill (1970) The Young Hegelians, (New Haven: Yale University Press);
S. Hook (1962) Trom Hegel to Marx, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press).
D. Moggach (2006) The New Hegelians. Politics and Philosophy in the Hegelian School, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
W. Breckman (1998) Marx, the Young Hegelians and the Origins of Radical Social Theory. Dethroning the Self, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 5–11.
D. Moggach (2001) ‘“Free Means Ethical”: Bruno Bauer’s Critical Idealism’, Owl of Minerva, 33/1: 1–24.
D. Moggach (2003) The Philosophy and Politics of Bruno Bauer, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 40–46.
G. W. F. Hegel (1986) Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag), p. 534.
G. W. F. Hegel (1986) ‘Der Geist des Christentums und sein Schicksal (1798–1800)’, in Frühe Schriften, (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag), pp. 276–311.
This text remained unpublished; the most well-known statements can be found in G. W. F. Hegel (1986) Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Religion, (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag), pp. 61–63.
L. Feuerbach (1973) Das Wesen des Christentums, (Berlin: Akademie Verlag), pp. 208–211.
B. Bauer (1968) ‘Die Fähigkeit des heutigen Juden und Christen, frei zu werden’, in Feldzüge der reinen Kritik, ed. H. M. Sass (Frankfurt; Suhrkamp Verlag), pp. 178–180.
A. Marx (1970) ‘Zur Judenfrage’, Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe: Werke, Schriften, Briefe. Ed. Band I. (Glässhutten im Taunus: Detlev Auvermann), p. 599.
M. Stirner, Der Einzige und sein Eigentum, (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2000), pp. 136–139;
M. Stirner, The Ego and Its Own, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 111–113;
M. Tomba, ‘Von der Geschichtsphilosophie zur Politik. Strömungen des Radikalismus im Vormärz: Bruno Bauer, Max Stirner und Karl Marx’, in Freiheit, Gleichheit, Solidarität. Beiträge zur Dialektik der Demokratie, ed., Werner Goldschmidt (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2009), pp. 113–114.
‘Es gibt keine Begriffsentwicklung des Einzigen, es kann kein philosophisches System aus ihm, als aus einem ‘Prinzipe’ erbaut werden, wie aus dem Sein, dem Denken oder dem Ich; es ist vielmehr alle Begriffsentwicklung mit ihm zu Ende. Wer ihn als ein ‘Prinzip’ ansieht, der denkt ihn philosophisch oder theoretisch behandeln zu können und führt notwendigerweise nutzlose Lufthiebe gegen ihn.’ Stirner (1986) ‘Rezensenten Stirners’, in Parerga, Kritiken, Repliken, ed. Bernd Laska, (Nürnberg: LSR-Verlag), p. 150.
John Henry Mackay and Ernst Barnikol suggest that Bauer and Stirner were caught up in a dispute over a joint project, probably Das entdeckte Christentum. Stirner eventually refused to collaborate with Bauer in 1843. It is however uncertain what triggered this dispute and when it started. E. Barnikol (1927) Das entdeckte Christentum im Vormärz, (Jena: Eugen Diederichs), pp. 38–39.
B. Bauer (1842) Hegel’s Lehre von der Religion und Kunst von dem Standpuncte des Glaubens aus beurtheilt, (Leipzig: Wigand), p. 197; D. Moggach, Philosophy and Politics, p. 37.
This probably explains why Stirner continues to criticize ‘egoism’ in another article just before Der Einzige und sein Eigentum, and claims that it is in fact opposed to ‘self-determination’. See: Stirner’s Einiges Vorläufige vom Liebesstaat (1843), pp. 123–126.
For an elaborated analysis of Stirner’s critique of Bruno Bauer, see W. De Ridder (2008) ‘Max Stirner, Hegel and the Young Hegelians’, History of European Ideas, 34/3: 285–297.
B. Bauer (1845) ‘Charakteristik Ludwig Feuerbachs’, Wigands Vierteljahrschrift III, pp. 86–146.
G. W. F. Hegel (1986) Phänomenologie des Geistes, (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag), pp. 575–586.
H. Pepperle (1986) Die Hegeische Linke: Dokumente zu Philosophie und Politik im Deutschen Vormärz, (Frankfurt: Röderberg Verlag), pp. 35–39.
Penzo, Die existentielle Empörung; F. Copleston, A History of Philosophy; H. Arvon, Aux sources de l’existentialisme. A more recent attempt at existentialist integration can be found in Bernd Kast’s edition of Der Einzige und sein Eigentum. M. Stirner (2009) Der Einzige und sein Eigentum. Ausführlich kommentierte Studienausgabe, (München, Verlag Karl Alber), pp. 391–393.
G. Deleuze & F. Guattari (1980) Mille plateaux. Capitalisme et schizophrénie, (Paris: Les Editions de Minuit), p. 304.
L. Althusser (2006) Philosophy of the Encounter. Later Writings 1978–1987 (London: Verso), p. 167–168.
S. Newman (2001) ‘Spectres of Stirner: A contemporary critic of ideology’, Journal of Political Ideologies, 6/3: 320–321.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2011 Widukind De Ridder
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
De Ridder, W. (2011). Max Stirner: The End of Philosophy and Political Subjectivity. In: Newman, S. (eds) Max Stirner. Critical Explorations in Contemporary Political Thought Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230348929_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230348929_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-32880-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-34892-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)