Heroic Individualism: Anarchistic and Aristocratic

Robert Spillane and Jean-Etienne Joullié
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Robert Spillane: Macquarie University
Jean-Etienne Joullié: Gulf University for Sciences & Technology

Chapter 8 in Philosophy of Leadership, 2015, pp 157-176 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Max Stirner was an eccentric German philosopher who brought Fichte down to earth and turned Schopenhauer on his head. Fichte’s statement that consciousness (ego) is everything harmonises perfectly with Stirner’s thesis, boldly defended in his infamous book of 1844, Der Einzige und Sein Eigentum, translated by Germans into English as The Unique One and His Property, but mistranslated by English speakers as The Ego and its Own. Stirner added, however, that it is not that ego is everything, but that ego destroys everything. By ego he meant the finite, personal ego, not an absolute or transcendental ego. Stirner vehemently rejected the idea that we have lying outside ourselves a destiny which enables us to lay claim to our basic humanity. This is a Christian fable. He criticised Fichte for inventing a substitute god — the absolute ego — to which all individuals are subordinated.

Keywords: Rational Authority; Personal Power; Universal History; Western Rationalism; Slave Morality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-49920-2_8

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DOI: 10.1057/9781137499202_8

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