Individualist anarchism

Individualist anarchism is a philosophical tradition that opposes collectivism and has a particularly strong emphasis on the supremacy and autonomy of the individual. The tradition appears most often in the United States, most notably in regard to its advocacy of private property. Individualist anarchism's roots includes Europeans such as William Godwin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and Max Stirner (who is also connected to the existentialist philosophy), though the individualist anarchist tradition draws heavily on American independent thinkers, including Josiah Warren, Benjamin Tucker, Lysander Spooner, Ezra Heywood, Stephen Pearl Andrews, and Henry David Thoreau. Noteworthy anarchist writer and poet John Henry Mackay is also considered an individualist anarchist. Contemporary individualist anarchists title include Robert Anton Wilson, Joe Peacott, Daniel Burton and Keith Preston. Though some individualists have engaged in practical endeavors, individualist anarchism is mostly "philosophical anarchism" as its focus has mainly been on philosophical argumentation to effect change. Individualist anarchism is often seen as a form of liberalism, and hence, has been called "liberal anarchism" http://www.weisbord.org/conquest8.htm.

Origins

There is signficant variance between the philosophies of different individualist anarchists. Almost all, such as Proudhon, support individual ownership of property, however, Stirner rejects the very notion of property. Godwin is an altruist, Stirner an egoist. Warren espouses natural law as a basis for individual liberty, while Tuckers premises it upon egoism. Tucker opposes intellectual property while Spooner advocates it. However, what these philosophers all have in common is a rejection of collectivist notions of society and a pronounced focus on individuality.

Related Topics:
Altruist - Egoist - Collectivist

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William Godwin, of England, wrote essays advocating a society without government that are considered some of the first, if not the first, anarchist treatises. As such, some consider the liberal British writer to be the "father of philosophical anarchism." There is a lack of consensus as to whether Godwin was an individualist or a communist. He is regarded by some as one of the first individualist anarchists, although his philosophy has some communist-like characteristics. He advocates an extreme form of individualism, proposing that all sorts of cooperation in labor should be eliminated; he says: "everything understood by the term co-operation is in some sense an evil." Godwin's individualism is to such a radical degree that he even opposes individuals performing together in orchestras. The only apparent exception to this opposition to cooperation is the spontaneous assocation that may arise when a society is threatened by violent force. One reason he opposes cooperation is he believes it to interfere with an individual's ability to be benevolent for the greater good. Godwin opposes the existence of government and expressly opposes democracy, fearing oppression of the individual by the majority (though he believes democracy to be preferable to dictatorship). Godwin supports individual ownership of property, defining it as as "the empire to which every man is entitled over the produce of his own industry." However, he does advocate that individuals give to each other their surplus property on the occasion that others have a need for it, without involving trade (see gift economy). This was to be based on utilitarian principles; he says: "Every man has a right to that, the exclusive possession of which being awarded to him, a greater sum of benefit or pleasure will result than could have arisen from its being otherwise appropriated." However, benevolence was not to be enforced but a matter of free individual "private judgement." He does not advocate a community of goods or assert collective ownership as is embraced in communism, but his belief that individuals ought to share with those in need was influential on anarchist communism later. Some consider Godwin both an individualist and a communist rather than than a strict individualist for this reason. http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:iCK-K7dEYK4J:www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/overview/shelley.pdf Some, such as Murray Rothbard, do not regard Godwin as being in the individualist camp at all http://www.b.150m.com/writers/rothbard/burke.html (Some restrict "individualist anarchism" to the market anarchists). Others consider him an individualist anarchist without reservation. http://www.weisbord.org/conquest8.htm Some writers see a conflict between Godwin's advocacy of "private judgement" and utilitarianism, as he says that ethics requires that individuals give their surplus property to each other resulting in an egalitarian society, but, at the same time, he insists that all things be left to individual choice. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/godwin/ Communist-anarchist Peter Kropotkin says in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica that Godwin "entirely rewrote later on his chapter on property and mitigated his communist views in the second edition of Political Justice." Godwin's basis in utilitarianism and ethical altruism contrasts with later individualists, such as Max Stirner and Benjamin Tucker, who ground their philosophy on egoism or self-interest (though not all are egoists). Also, Godwin's aversion to cooperation and a market economy is not typical among the individualists.

Related Topics:
Liberal - Gift economy - Utilitarian - Anarchist communism - Murray Rothbard - Communist-anarchist - Peter Kropotkin - Egoism - Self-interest

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While the embrace of property is typical of individualist anarchists, one notable individualist anarchist that opposes the concept is Germany's Max Stirner. Stirner holds that the "right" to property is an illusion, or "ghost". Stirner considers the world and everything in it, including other persons, available to one's taking or use without moral constraint --that rights do not exist in regard to objects at all. He sees no rationality in taking the interests of others into account unless doing so furthers one's self-interest, which he believes is the only legitimate reason for acting. His embrace of egoism is in stark contrast to Godwin's altruism. He denies society as being an actual entity, calling society a "spook" and that "the individuals are its reality" (The Ego and Its Own). Whether individualist anarchism is properly justified by self-interest (egoism) or natural law has been a subject of debate among the individualists. For example, Lysander Spooner holds that there are natural property rights, but egoists such as Benjamin Tucker agree with Stirner that there are no natural property rights but hold that property can come only about by contract between individuals.

Related Topics:
Max Stirner - Egoism - Altruism - Lysander Spooner - Benjamin Tucker - Contract

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France's Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was the first philosopher to label himself an "anarchist." He was particularly influential among the American individualists, mainly by way of Benjamin Tucker who had translated and studied his works. Proudhon opposes government privilege that protects banking and land interests, which he believes hampers competition and keeps wealth in the hands of the few. Proudhon favors a right of individuals to retain the product of their labor as their own property. He saw private property as essential to liberty. He says: "Where shall we find a power capable of counter-balancing the... State? There is none other than property... The absolute right of the State is in conflict with the absolute right of the property owner. Property is the greatest revolutionary force which exists." Proudhon maintains that those who labor should retain the entirety of what they produce, and that state-backed monopoly on credit and land was the force that was prohibiting such. He advocated an economic system that included private property and exchange market but without profit, which he called mutualism --a system that had previously been theorized and practiced by the American Josiah Warren. It is Proudhon's philosophy that was explictly rejected by Joseph Dejacque in the inception of anarchist-communism, with the latter asserting directly to Proudhon in a letter that "it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature." Proudhon said that "communism...is the very denial of society in its foundation..." (Philosophy of Poverty).

Related Topics:
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon - Mutualism - Josiah Warren - Joseph Dejacque - Anarchist-communism

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The split between the individualists and the social anarchists (collectivists and communists) was characterised by various degrees of antagonism and harmony between the two groups, with individualists like Tucker on the one hand translating and reprinting the works of collectivists like Mikhail Bakunin, while on the other hand rejecting the economic aspects of collectivism and communism as incompatible with anarchist ideals.

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While individualist anarchism is often seen as including William Godwin and Max Stirner, it is most often associated with the market anarchism of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and the native American tradition, both of which advocate individual ownership of the produce of labor and a market economy where this property may be bought and sold. This is in contrast to social anarchists who believe that productive property should be in the control of the society at large in various forms of worker collectives.

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