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Title: Stirnerian Ethics Author: W. Curtis Swabey Date: 1931. Language: en Topics: ethics, Max Stirner, morality Source: http://libertarian-labyrinth.blogspot.com/2010/08/w-curtis-swabey-stirnerian-ethics.html Notes: L’En-Dehors n°204–205, April 15, 1931. Translator’s note: It’s possible that this is a translation of a translation, but I haven’t found an English version of the text.
All those who have been fortunate enough to read “The Unique and His
Property,” by Max Stirner feel the deep desire to make his doctrine
known to others, particularly to the workers. It is with that aim that I
attempt to give, in a few lines, a glimpse of that doctrine. It does not
seem that his book has been well understood by several of those who have
attempted to give an account of it.
What Eltzbacher says about it in his book “Anarchism” is not very exact;
he should first of all say that Stirner is not especially preoccupied
with being clear and that he makes use of an individual philosophical
jargon. We too often confuse the egoist — or rather nihilist —
philosophy of Stirner, with the individualist philosophy of an Emerson
for example.
Stirner has proclaimed, and this seems the fundamental point of his
theory, the doctrine of the property of the self. That was a bold
conception which will help one day to bring about a great revolution in
philosophy. Here it is, in essence: “You are your own masters; work for
your own interests. Respect no ideal; do not make your actions conform
to any moral standard. Scorn custom, duty, morality, justice, law. I am
God, and king, and law. — Hold as sacred only your appetites and
desires.” That is what he means by that nihilist expression: “All things
are nothing to me,” “You are not bound if you refuse to belief yourself
bound; you are to yourself the Most High; respect nothing, and be your
own God. Obey no pact.” In short: “Nothing is more dear to me than
myself!”
Now, between the nihilist and individualist philosophies, there is a
rather subtle distinction that it is necessary to bring clearly to
light. The individualist philosophy says: Be a strong individual! Raise
yourself above the common! Develop your individuality!” The egoist or
nihilist philosophy says: “You have no duty to fulfill. If you desire to
be a strong man, an influential man, an individual really above, as much
as is possible, the influence of the herd, in that case, be strong! Not
as duty, but as privilege.” The first theory commands: “You must be a
superman.” The second says: “Be what you want to be.”
The Stirnerian egoist — the man who accepts no morality — does not limit
himself with regard to sympathy. He follows the impulses of his heart.
He denies the rights, the titles of property; he fosters no respect the
State, even if it was the freest Democracy that it was possible to
imagine. He concedes no ethical view superior to his own desires. But
there is nothing in Stirner that is contrary to the feeling of
solidarity, to sympathy, or to fraternal love. Stirner proclaims the
liberation from all that which can chain the individual; he is the
prophet of unchained egoism. He makes litter of the ethical rubbish of
the past, he shows the last ideal of an idolatrous race, morals, and he
cries: “Look! It is an imposture.” He turns to the Ego, to all the Egos
of the Universe and cries: “Each of you is for himself the true God, do
as you please.”
Between the ethics of Kropotkin and that of Stirner there is no
essential difference; what the first expresses in a simply scientific
language, Stirner explains in metaphysical terms that are correct, but a
little confused. When Kropotkin shows that, in each individual, there
exists a passion for the good of the race, he gives a strong support to
the thesis of Stirner. We have hesitated to proclaim that morals are an
illusion and duty an imposture until Kropotkin assured us that the
sentiment of solidarity is inherent in the nature of man. This
determined, we can cast morality in the trash without danger to the
species.
According to the conception of Stirner, the good is that which pleases
him, and evil is what he detests. That which wounds your sympathy is
evil for you, so that, while denying absolutely any value whatsoever in
morals imposed from outside, we find impossible to deny the existence of
good and evil.
But it is me, the Ego, which will be its touchstone. A tyrant, a brutal
murder committed by this blood-stained monster that is the law, a cruel
act, what undermines my feeling of solidarity, that is evil.
Then we will add to our war cry a new call.
Before now, we have cheered the death of the all-powerful enemy, God;
the fall of the law, the destruction of the rights of property, we can
add: “Down with morality!”
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W. Curtis Swabey