================================= ===================== =========== Max Stirner's Egoism and Nihilism A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of San Diego State University in Partial Fulfilment of Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy by Larry Alan Schiereck August, 1981, revised 1996 and 2015 SDSU Thesis Committee: William Snyder, Philosophy (Chair); Sherwood Nelson, Philosophy; Kingsley Widmer, English & Comparative Literature Note: this document was written in 1981, based on the literature available at that time. I revised and converted it to HTML in 1996, and revised a lot more in 2015. I didn’t want to rewrite it from scratch, nor leave the old one circulating, so as a blend of old and new this is a final update. Send any comments to
[email protected]. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Dedicated to my father, Fred W. Schiereck, and the late Professors Kingsley Widmer, Walter Koppelman and Michael Carella of SDSU. I am grateful to (in the 70s and 80s) Josef Binter, William Stoddard, and Linda Moore. Barbara Franke-Watson of SDSU graciously clarified some of my German translations. A special thanks to Antonio T. De Nicolás, professor of philosophy at S.U.N.Y Stony Brook, where I audited classes in 1979-80. Many of his extraordinary books are available online. 2. * * * * * * * * * * TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 2 I. Overture: The Nihilistic Egoist 3 II. Oratorio: Total Atheism 10 III. A One-Urchin Chorus: Nihilism 17 IV. Sunday, Billy Sunday: The Nihilistic Egoist 22 V. Requiem & Scherzo For Solipsist 28 VI. Capriccio & Finale 32 POSTSCRIPT: Stirner Without Metaphysics 37 BIBLIOGRAPHY 49 Endnotes after each chapter ABSTRACT During the early 1970s a 'revival' took place of the philosophy of Max Stirner, born Johann Caspar Schmidt (1806-1856), whose book Der Einzige und Sein Eigentum has been called a 'revolutionary anarchist manual', a 'Banker's Bible', a 'structural model of petit-bourgeois self-consciousness' and other names since its appearance in 1844.