Max Stirner: Ontology, Ethics, Politics by Deniz Ali Woloshin Guvenc Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree: Master of Arts in Philosophy Supervisor: Dr. Jeffrey Reid Department of Philosophy Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa Ó Deniz Ali Woloshin Guvenc, Ottawa, Canada, 2019 Abstract For all the charges laid against him—sophistry, nihilism, greedy individualism, ego-tism, radical nominalism—I attempt to rescue something affirmative, something joyful in the work of Max Stirner. I argue that there exists another Stirner, one hidden beneath the fiery rhetoric and frenzied prose, a Stirner attentive and responsive to the intricate uncertainty of existence. Not without a hint of irony, I have found in his destructive anarchism a spirited celebration of invention and creation; in his wild anti-humanism, a gentle sympathy for the human life; in his aggressive atheism, an unwavering clemency for the heathen. Yet this other, joyful Stirner is not opposed to the dominant, ruinous image; rather, they are intimately bound up in one another. Stirner’s warm sympathy for those of us who are less than perfect—those of us who fail in our aspirations, who let ourselves down—is not opposed to his rejection of the human as such, but is in fact made possible by it. The rejection and the affirmation exist in and as a single motion, a single strike: this is perhaps the central idea in my reading of Stirner, borne out through analyses of his non-dialectical ontology, his descriptive ethics, and his anarchic politics. ii Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................. ii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................. v Introduction ........................................................................................................................... vi Irony ....................................................................................................................................................... viii Language ................................................................................................................................................. xi Chapter Overview .................................................................................................................................. xiv Chapter One: Ontology ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1: Stirner’s Ironic Inversion of Feuerbach’s Humanism ......................................................... 6 Essences and Attributes ........................................................................................................................... 7 Religion and the Sacred ......................................................................................................................... 12 Language and Intersubjectivity ............................................................................................................. 16 1.2: Stirner’s Ironic Inversion of Bauer’s Pure Criticism ......................................................... 21 Universality and Particularity in Bauer’s Pure Criticism ........................................................................ 22 Stirner’s Ironic Inversion of Criticism ..................................................................................................... 26 Criticism and Humanism ........................................................................................................................ 30 1.3: Stirner’s Egoism: Property, The Unique, Dissolution ....................................................... 36 Property ................................................................................................................................................. 37 The Unique ............................................................................................................................................. 41 Dissolution ............................................................................................................................................. 50 Chapter Two: Ethics .............................................................................................................. 55 Nihilism .................................................................................................................................................. 56 Passionate Attachments and Voluntary Servitude ................................................................................ 60 2.1: Stirner and Nietzsche ..................................................................................................... 64 Nietzsche’s Predecessor: Historical Records and Personal Correspondences ........................................ 64 2.2: Egoism and the Ethical ................................................................................................... 71 Writing and Communicative Expression ................................................................................................ 72 Love and Slavery: Egoism as Descriptive ............................................................................................... 76 A Law unto Oneself: Hedonism and Self-Dissolution ............................................................................. 83 Interests, Principles, and the Sacred ...................................................................................................... 90 Conscious and Unconscious Egoism ...................................................................................................... 93 Chapter Three: Politics ........................................................................................................ 103 3.1: Stirner and the Anarchist Canon ................................................................................... 106 Authoritarianism and Identity ............................................................................................................. 110 3.2: The State and Ideology ................................................................................................. 116 The State .............................................................................................................................................. 117 Stirner’s Shadow-Figures ..................................................................................................................... 124 Ideology and the Un-Man, or Inhuman Monster ................................................................................. 127 iii 3.3: Stirner’s Anarchic Egoism .............................................................................................. 136 Revolution and Insurrection ................................................................................................................. 137 The Union of Egoists ............................................................................................................................ 145 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 153 Limits of Identity, Politics of Singularity ............................................................................................... 161 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 166 iv Acknowledgments My undertaking of this project was made possible only by the labour of others. While I cannot for account for the full spectrum of support I received, the following individuals named or mentioned deserve explicit praise and gratitude for their contributions. I was afforded the space and resources to complete my degree by the work of various union members, as well as the administrative and custodial staff at the University of Ottawa. The material conditions of our daily lives directly affect our ability to learn and to philosophize; without their efforts, I could not have navigated my graduate studies. I am indebted to my supervisor and to my committee for not only their insightful feedback, but for their patience and trust in my abilities. Dr. Reid, Dr. Moggach, and Dr. Sparling— thank you for humouring me all this time. Mentorship is a rare gift—coupled with friendship, it is rarer still. Matthew McLennan, Devin Zane Shaw, Thomas Abrams, Gary Thibert, T. Mars McDougall, Mariful Alam, Julia Blakey, Alex Liepins, and Lung Chieh Lim: each of you, in your own unique ways, have been central to my life during this process. Over and above the theoretical contributions you have made to my development as an academic, you have all tended to my affective and emotional well-being outside of the institution—a task both difficult and taxing, to be sure. My accomplishment here is a minor victory at best; yet, the weight of your love is immense. Thank you all. My family has extended me endless care, support, and encouragement throughout my entire life. The love and labour of my parents, Velma and Ali, has been nothing short of miraculous. My sister, Sabrina, has shown me time and time again what it means to love with beautiful, reckless abandon. And Tiffany MacLellan: thank you