Max Stirner

Johann Kaspar Schmidt (October 25, 1806 – June 26, 1856), better known as Max Stirner (the nom de plume he adopted from a schoolyard nickname he had acquired as a child because of his high brow ), German philosopher, who ranks as one of the literary grandfathers of nihilism, existentialism and anarchism, especially of individualist anarchism. Stirner himself explicitly denied to hold any absolute position in his philosophy, further stating that if he must be identified with some "-ism" let it be egoism — the antithesis of all ideologies and social causes, as he conceived of it.

Biography

Stirner was born in Bayreuth 25th of October 1806. What little is known of his life is mostly due to the Scottish-German writer John Henry Mackay, who wrote a biography of Stirner (Max Stirner - sein Leben und sein Werk), published in German in 1898. A 2005 English translation has now appeared.

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Stirner attended university in Berlin, where he attended the lectures of Hegel, who was to become a vital source of inspiration for his thinking, and on the structure of whose work Phenomenology of Spirit (org. Phänomenologie des Geistes), he modelled his own book. (Hegel's influence on Stirner's thinking is debatable, and is discussed in more detail below.)

Related Topics:
Berlin - Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit - Below

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While in Berlin, Stirner also met Ludwig Feuerbach, whose ideas of humanism and humanity he later vigorously attacked in The Ego and Its Own. Both had associations with the so-called Young Hegelians, who clustered around Arnold Ruge and Bruno Bauer in Berlin in the 1830s and 40s. Eager subscribers to Hegel?s dialectical method, the Young Hegelians applied a dialectical approach to Hegel?s own conclusions, which led not only to new, politically more radical and disturbing conclusions than Hegel?s own, but also to internal dispute and disruption. Frequently the debates would take place at Hippel's, a Weinstube (wine bar) in Friedrichstrasse, attended by, amongst others, the young Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The only portrait we have of Stirner consists of a cartoon by Engels.

Related Topics:
Ludwig Feuerbach - Humanism - Humanity - The Ego and Its Own - Young Hegelians - Arnold Ruge - Bruno Bauer - Dialectical - Karl Marx - Friedrich Engels

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Stirner worked as a schoolteacher employed in a academy for young girls when he wrote The Ego and Its Own, although he resigned this position in anticipation of the controversy arising from his major work's publication.

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Stirner married twice; his first wife was a household servant, with whom he fell in love at an early age. Soon after their marriage, she died due to complications with pregnancy in 1838. Stirner's second wife was Marie Dähnhardt, an intellectual associated with Die Freien who abandoned him just prior to the publication of The Ego and Its Own. The heartfelt dedication to her on the first edition's title page served also as a plea for her return.

Related Topics:
Marie Dähnhardt - Die Freien

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In one of the most curious events in the history of 19th century philosophy, Stirner planned and financed (with his second wife's inheritance) a short-lived attempt by the Young Hegelians to own and operate a milk-shop on co-operative principles. This enterprise failed because the German dairy farmers harboured suspicions of these well-dressed intellectuals with their confusing talk about profit-sharing and other high-minded ideals. Meanwhile, the milk shop itself appeared so ostentatiously decorated that most of the customers felt too poorly dressed to buy their milk there.

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In 1856, Stirner died from an infected insect bite. After The Ego and Its Own he published a German translation of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations in 1847 and a History of Reaction (1852).

Related Topics:
The Ego and Its Own - Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations - History of Reaction

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