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Could you give me a link to the exact quote where he says that even if his ideas caused a wars he'd still share them? That honestly sounds based as fuck and I wanna know what exactly he said in his own words.
Drop acid for artistic creativity, coke to power up, smoke dope to calm down during the 30 minute break, smoke some crack to wake back up and finish the paper 40 minutes before the deadline 😎
To everyone suggesting Mainlander, Cioran, Schopenhauer and Wittgenstein, please note that the adjectives "SPOOKIEST, SADDEST, SCARIEST, CREEPIEST, and SEXIEST" are still available for future videos ;)
If anyone's curious about why he abandoned morality and what "spook" means, Stirner lived in the post Enlightenment, when religion was no longer ruling over politics and society, instead it was rational ideals like Truth and Righteousness. Stirner argued that these ideals were just as intellectually rigid and suffocating as religion had been, even if they were created by people for their own freedom. Stirner uses the word _geist_ (meaning "essence" or "spirit") to mean any social construct that 'posseses' us like a ghost and controls our decisions. Imagine crusaders who fought and died on the Pope's orders, then compare that to people dying for their favorite political ideology. Stirner advocates that we see social constructs for the "spooks" that they are; use them as long as they help us, and discard them when they only hurt us. So it's not about selfishness and manipulating other people, but more about stopping ideas from manipulating you.
All ideas are rigidly intellectual to some degree, why? They must be adhered to to make them so. He wrote books about it so it must be rigid if it’s enough to write books
yeh dat me, whatcha want? like 3 yrs ago my ex cheated on me, I almost liked myself. a month ago my mom died from cancer, she was the reason why I didn't killed myself, now it's becoming increasingly harder to find reasons to live...
Stirner also believed in empathy and that people will help one another because it's in their self-interest because their empathy compels them to. Yes, he said morality is a spook but mutual aid is not. honestly Sisyphus I think you read a bad translation of his book. He even ironically said "shame to the egoist who thinks only of himself." in literally the first chapter. Another good quote by stirner is "I love men too-not merely individuals, but everyone. But I love them with the consciousness of my egoism; I love them because love makes me happy, I love because loving is natural to me, it pleases me. I know no 'commandment of love'." Yes, it may sound harsh to some but it's reality. Stirner egoism is also somewhat altruistic if you think about it because he basically saw himself in others and that is why he advocated for mutual aid. I don't believe in altruism. I think people help each other because it's in their self-interest. And just because people are not moral-realist it does not mean they are gonna go out and steal, rape, and kill. Because it is ultimately not in a rational person's self-interest to do so because they don't want their loved ones or themselves to be robbed from, and raped, or killed. Those actions are not in the majority of people's self-interest unless they are a sociopath. I personally liked Stirner's book I found it liberating and I found it had many parallels to Taoism. So, just because morality is a spook that doesn't mean I am gonna fuck my sister or strangle my kids just because I am a moral anti-realist. I would see those actions as displeasing to my ego and I would not want others to do that because I have empathy and it would displease me and if I saw a mother doing that to their child I would want to stop her because I have empathy for every person because I see myself in them. I see myself in everybody so I would not want to hurt myself or my property. At least this is how I interpreted the book but then again that book is basically like a Rorschach painting you will either see a butterfly or a skull it inspired socialists, anarchists, communists, libertarians, and fascists. So depending on your personal unique one will see different things. But overall I think if your not a sociopath reading Stirner won't make you a hedonistic serial killer
Boom! You said it. This is exactly what I take from Stirner’s writings. You also have to consider that 1. A lot of The Unique and It’s Property is tongue-in-cheek and not be taken literally and 2. In his own “philosophy”, you should take the ideas from what he writes in his text and apply them to yourself. To me, it’s basically like a complete brainwash - not in a bad sense - of a text, a mirror to one’s self.
You're mostly correct, but the "shame to the egoist who thinks only of himself." part is obviously sarcastic. What is not supposed to be my affair! Above all, the good cause, then God’s cause, the cause of humanity, of truth, of freedom, of humaneness, of justice; furthermore, the cause of my people, my prince, my fatherland; finally even the cause of mind and a thousand other causes. Only my own cause is never supposed to be my affair. “Down with the egoist who only thinks of himself!”
why did you have to draw stirner with an angry face all the time? his fellows described him as a very laidback person that never got angry at anything. he didnt take things too seriously, especially not his own "philosophy"
Its because the drawing of him was made from memory by Engels 40 years later. And when we consider that Marx and Engels wrote more about how much they hated Stirners ideas, than Stirner himself actually wrote.
This is a pretty good look over his life! but you do miss a few key points 1. stirner, himself, was anything but a sad man. Sure, his life was incredibly sad, but the Ego and His Own is built off of wordplay, satire and parody, and takes itself as a joke. he was a critical, irreverent, but incredibly light hearted man in the way he does this. especially in his approach toward hegel 2. stirner been confirmed to interact with engels (considering engels' definite crush on him), almost as much so as Marx. marx's abandonment of humanism and approach to other young hegelian thinkers, and eventually the young hegelians in general, was entirely due to the cruelty that Stirner put them through in his work. marx was so embarrased by this fact, that he wrote more than stirner ever wrote into a single book criticising him, but it was so poorly conceived and put together it was never published. this same thing happened with historical materialism, his way of "stirner proofing" his ideology 3. stirners views of the self are heavily inspired by eastern Taoist philosophy. the lack of crystallisation and defintion of the self lines up almost perfectly with the views in the Tao Te Ching, and this wasnt a matter of nihilism, but definitive liberation and 4. the surprising amount of emphasis on love. while his love was selfish, it was mentioned, brought to the forefront and demonstrated frequently. stirner was an odd, strange as hell man. but he was a surprisingly happy one.
100% true, Stirner was a mix of a cynical yet happy loving man that despite all that happened in his life, he loved man and rejected the idea of Man, he loved not because of some otherwordly idea but just because it pleased him to do so
After reading his work, you definitely get a sense of satirical almost comic element that is ironic and in of itself very beautiful…..I can’t help but have a good laugh after finishing the book
Wow. Nice cherry picking. Max Stirner: I love people because it pleases me. I am happy when others are happy. Trans women are women regardless even without gender confirmation surgeries of the future. Some dude on RU-vid: Stirner was a miserable antisocial shite. Me and other commenters: uh did you actually read Stirner?
damnit same here ...I had so many ejaculations so far, that could result in a Richard, or Jozef, or Margaret ...but they are all put away in a trow away napkin, on the landfill by now :D
I love Stirner so much, one critique is that Stirner did strive to abolish competition, which is something that’s kind of needed to imagine Stirners union of egoists as Stirners real critique of Marxism wasn’t economic but rather one of the narrative of human nature and what defines the individual as well as their alienation.
Stirner never strived to “Abolish competition” even though he did criticize it “I cannot compete because I do not have the resources to compete”, however he also supported the pursuit of material resources AS LONG as you did not live only for that. Stirner implied that Capitalism, If it serves the Egoist’s gain is fully alright. If you weren’t one-sided, you would use the same thing for socialism, that Stirner strived to nullify socialism aswell, which is also not true. Stirner basically didn’t hate communists nor capitalists, he hated “Sacred” capitalists and communists, capitalists who think they can bear the right to property, but a capitalist strong enough to assert such right is fine, and he hates the sacred communists who believe everyone is by base equal.
As an egoist I ask why I should not condemn a mother who strangled her own child if my righteous condemnation makes me feel good? If rejecting you, the egoist, and embracing people that I feel are of better moral fiber makes me feel powerful and safe isn’t that the right course of action? According to an egoist anyway?
I feel like people think we're advocating for a new morality or code based on egoism...which would defeat the point. If one ego's own sense of right and wrong is enforced by his, or his affinity group's, own will...then it is consistent with egoism
I agree with his ultimate idea of egoistic love and underlying premise that all virtues are, in fact, acts of selfishness. Selflessness is the evolution of selfishness, as we are social creatures that depend on the quality of our relationships. Seriously, our relationships determine our health and lifespan. Case in point, the dude died before his deteriorating mother, and she in turn died 3 days later with the loss of her son. Cooperation is in our mutual, collective self-interest. But I largely disagree with the treatment that fulfilling the needs of the self necessitates causing harm to others.
@@bens6559 1. What do you mean by saying that selfishness is the evolution of selfishness? 2. Why do you the idea that fulfilling the needs of self necessitates the harm of others call a treatment?
@@МиљанМирић-о4д selflessness and selfishness is different selflessness is concern more with the needs and wishes of others than with one's own. And Selfishness is being concerned excessively or exclusively, for oneself or one's own advantage, pleasure, or welfare, regardless of others. I think what he means is that in love were so selfish we will be selfless for the one that he/she love. We're selfless to the want that we love because we're selfish of her/he we will love the that we like because we like her/he so we're possessive of the one that we love
Stirner's philosophy made me joyous. Empowered. I am my own property, as long as I hold my own power and let nobody and no IDEA control me. Even an idea of myself.
Egoism is one of those philosophies to me where context is everything, I can imagine it being a catalyst for someone already anti-social. I actually feel really bad for Stirner, I was also alone with a mentally unstable mother as a child. It does things to you, and Stirner's path of thought seems scarred by that 😢
Stirner seemed a lot happier with his life and self than most people do. I mean I've seen his philosophy help a lot of trans people, and also help some people get out of abusive situations and relationships. So that should probably be a tipoff that he might have been onto something with his whole radical self acceptance and rejection of arbitrary social constructs.
@@sock2828 That's very interesting as my interest in philosophy started from gender issues. Funnily enough I have a friend who told me she had major breakthroughs of self-confidence after finding Ayn Rand's work. She said that it really helped to have an affirmation of individualism written down as a physical object and not just her thoughts. I don't see how it would be any different for Stirner's work, I guess some people naturally gravitate to radical self acceptance and know how to get the most from this philosophy. thnx for the reply :)
My drunk self wants to add: pls read Stirner's Critics, it adds a lot to The Ego and Its Own. Also, at least in some part of the Spanish-speaking world, the phrase "Santa Claus doesn't exist, he's actually our parents" became a meme used to comically discredit anything. So that's more background to my previous comment
Describing Stirner's philosophy with phrases like "good" and "should" misses entirely the point of his amoralism. I love your channel but you blew this one.
The question I leave to you is why would Stirner write a book that appears to favour autonomy? If he was truly amoral he would consider conformity to be of equal moral weight (as all values) and hence would find it nonsensical to justify or argue for one value over another. I understand that Stirner himself might consider his work amoral. However, even in a limited sense, Stirner offers normative claims. Here is an argument proposed bu the author of his Stanford Philosophy article: "Morality, on Stirner’s account, involves the positing of obligations to behave in certain fixed ways. As a result, he rejects morality as incompatible with egoism properly understood. However, this rejection of morality is not grounded in the rejection of values as such, but in the affirmation of what might be called non-moral goods. That is, Stirner allows that there are actions and desires which, although not moral in his sense (because they do not involve obligations to others), are nonetheless to be assessed positively. Stirner is clearly committed to the non-nihilistic view that certain kinds of character and modes of behaviour (namely autonomous individuals and actions) are to be valued above all others. His conception of morality is, in this respect, a narrow one, and his rejection of the legitimacy of moral claims is not to be confused with a denial of the propriety of all normative or ethical judgement. " However I do agree that, in hindsight, the terms "good" and "should" are too hyperbolized for what he was suggesting. It's a little difficult to convey that someone is 'hinting at' a certain moral preference.
@@Sisyphus55 I appreciate the response. In truth, I have hoped for you to talk about Stirner since I subscribed but thought it would never happen, and had been interested in your take on Stirner's "amoralism". My understanding of Stirner has always been that all humans behave egoistically and shows this by deconstructing moralistic notions like altruism, adherement to nation or religion as ultimately self-serving. These are "spooks", things humans serve "above" their own self-interests but with the ultimate idea that serving such things will benefit our self interest. The pious man is not pious for its own sake, but because he thinks it will get him into heaven. The altruistic man is not altruistic for its own sake, but because helping others makes him feel good. So it is with many other things, we sell ourselves and each other these lies that we serve these things, the "external egos", the "spooks", for their own sake but in the end it is all in service to our own self interest, our ego. Stirner reckons that rather than serve ourselves indirectly by serving these "external egoisms", we would better service ourselves by being conscious of our own ego and service ourselves directly. If we are all only self-serving egoists anyway in spite of what we normally tell ourselves, why not simply accept this and behave in a way that aligns with our egoistic desires without consideration for the "spooks"? There are transparently egoistic reasons to keep your promises and to help your fellow man. Painting Stirner's philosophy as bloodthirsty or sociopathic misses the point, egoism is humanistic, a self-consistent egoist would consider what impact an action would have on their feelings. Stirner said as much.
If with every action you ask yourself: does this benefit me? You will find that you will make conventionally moral choices anyway so whatever. Unless you are a total psychopath, but I don't even think Stirner was one himself. My point is: his 'ideology' isn't as destructive as it sounds.
@@el_goblino413 stirner was an anarchist who thought people would come together and freely associate because its the best option for them. Same with morality like you said. Dont fucking kill people cause its bad for everyone. Etc
Cody Goble You misunderstand; nobody needs an excuse to act selfishly, they’re already doing so at all times. All actions are taken ultimately to serve the self, as if you did not desire to take an action either you would not take it or it is beyond your control and not a real choice. We simply reject the notion of pretending to do it for any other reason. And plenty of egoists act with empathy: it is a drive and a desire like any other. We however reject morality, which is a just a societal formalization of our natural empathy.
Honestly Stirner is the most misrepresented philosopher of that age, and isn’t that negative. He just knows bullshit when he sees it, and tells others they could too.
@@philipcollins90 lmao trying to be an edge lord sure, but he also said that love of human beings comes out of the human desire to love comes out of no morality or commandment
one of the most interesting philosophers since he maintains a thin line between nihilism and anti nihilism i'm surprised he doesn't have his own school of philosophy
I remember first hearing about Stirner from a friend years ago and everyone seemed to hate on his philosophy, but after looking into it I ended up agreeing with most of it, give or take some extremes.
I did always find it funny that philosophers will present a view that, say, completely confuses and destroys our common sense world views or paints our existence as comepltely devoid of meaning, but then it always ends on some point of optimism. It's like they need the conclusion to be positive. It might be the case that the genuine truth of the world/human nature is a positive one. But it seems odd to me that almost every single philosopher's stance is ultimately optimistic, when it seems equally likely the truth is pessimistic. We'll just reject a conclusion if it's one that doesn't give personal comfort. Kinda shows how we don't value the truth as much as we think we do.
@@haise12 Yeah. Cioran was much closer to existentialism than anything else. Stirner is the sort of thing psychopaths would subscribe to (as interesting as his philosophy is, mind you).
Irregardless I find stirner to be the most logically consistent and perceptive philosopher BY FAR. Ideology, responsibility, and our past selves DO limit our freedom, and I think everyone does act exclusively in their own self interest, even if they are giving their lives
Just like you called Cioran creepy, I don't think Stirner was miserable. He was an extremely cynical egoistical anarchist, but what is wrong with that? He openly said what I think most people would say if they only weren't such total cowards and hypocrites as they are.
Wouldn't be hard. Stirner's still pretty obscure in the realm of philosophy, and the only times I've seen his name mentioned by more well known philosophers they spent the entire time dunking on him. He's not really taken seriously
The "dark side" of Stirner's philosophy wouldn't really come to pass. Nobody in their right mind wants to have sex with their sister. This is not something enforced on us by rules, morality, religion, upbringing ,etc. -- the thought of the act itself is displeasing on a fundamental level. Like how it is absolutely not immoral to pick up a piece of dog shit from the ground and eat it, but nobody does it. A fully autonomous person, one who owns themselves, still has the same fundamental natural likes and dislikes as one brought up under a strict moral code, and as such both should agree on fundamental morality, which arises not as a social construct, but from fundamental traits of human cognition. Farther, humans are rational beings who can plan for the future, so an immoral person would still not senselessly hurt others and will fulfill obligations to people whom he can trust to fulfill theirs in turn. In some sense the entirety of human civilisation rests on the fact that nobody goes to Olive Garden, orders a glass of water, and then eats a dozen baskets of free bread. I know you will do what you said, because you know I will do what I said, because I know that you know that I know that you know... that if I don't, you will never trust me again. Religion will still exist, of course. Because people like religion. If I own myself, well I'm free to believe in sky daddy if it lets me sleep at night. And if others like believing in him, well we can form a society. In essence, I feel Stirner is not really saying anything new about human nature and nothing bad will arise from following his philosophy. E.g. I can't tell you not to judge me for killing your brother, because you're free to seek justice which will make you feel better. And a system for enforcing that justice will exist because we all want it. So on and so forth.
You think far too highly of everyday people. You'd be surprised at the number of people who'd fuck their sister if they could, eat their babies if they could. A person raised under a strict moral code more likely suppresses his natural lies and dislikes rather than augment them on any level. In Stirner's world, there is no justice. Only revenge/payback. Nobody is dispensing justice because no wrong has been done; people would just be acting out of anger as they want to.
@baldrobe_dwane for stirner, if you think your sister is hot, do as you please with her, as long as it doesn´t hurt her ego too, because it´s supposed to be a voluntary action. Egoism is consistent in its values, I don´t just want to express my ego as I want, I want me and my fellow individuals to do so
Miserable is probably one of the last adjectives I would choose to describe Stirner. I actually find his philosophy very optimistic, in a way. It gives you a feeling of power sort of like cocaine does. The most miserable philosopher in history would probably be Schopenhauer or someone like that.
Stirner's work is his smirk extended to 500 pages. He starts and ends his book saying he bases his affair on nothing, something that would be said between friends at a party. He plays on words, jokes a lot, the point is not to take him seriously.
I feel like the most miserable philosopher of all time was Phillip Mainländer, hanging yourself off a pile of your own books seems pretty miserable to me
Most criticism of stirner seems to not follow any logical conclusion. They're mostly attacks on his character. Like "oh he was an angsty spook that lived a miserable life. So don't listen to what he says" I do think he's missing a crucial point though. Instinct, people always make decisions without really thinking about it. He seems to think that every decision the "egoist" makes is thoroughly thought out and rational. This is obviously incorrect. People always do things that don't positively affect them, directly nor indirectly. Some people are nice just through their habit, some others are self-destructive and do themselves harm for no good reason
But why should killing give me pleasure? Why should harming another give me pleasure, or justice? Humans are beings with a hunger for justice; this brings about both good and bad on its own, but you cannot erase the history of our species as one who had judged the world; who had assigned value in their own right. Even in myself; the higher my ego, the greater my will, the stronger my sense of honour, justice and dignity, as well as a deep sense of joy and satisfaction with myself because I stay true, I do not muddy myself with others filth any more. My ego is more than me, and yet I become me, every instant is a new beginning; nothingness sparks creativity.
@Maintenance Renegade Guilt needs rationalization. People feel guilty when they are responsible for suffering. That's very zen of u but many people actually do need to rationalize their own suffering, which oftentimes includes guilt.
@Maintenance Renegade nothing you said was incorrect the universe is fundamentally uncaring and arbitrary, but that's still a way to rationalize suffering. Rationalization is an attempt to explain, account for, and provide a rationale for something. Explain to me how your nihilistic thesis is any less of a rationalization of suffering.
It would have been interesting if you mentioned the basis upon which his philosophy is built, as I understand it: an extreme form of nominalism. His use of the word “spook” to describe and dismiss any abstraction would have been nice to include. Otherwise, great video. It’s good that you’re bringing this lesser known philosopher to light.
That is in a way missrepresenting his writing. It is not the abstract quality of an abstraction that makes it a spook. It is that it is an abstract that does not serve one's own interest but is instead planted into one externally. In a way one becomes slave to a construct, instead of that construct being a tool of egoistic self-interest. This does not mean that all that is socially constructed or is abstract is a spook. That's a pretty common missunderstanding of Stirner.
@@FrozenRat161 note the difference between abstract and abstraction. Stirner was a nominalist in the sense that he rejected universals and abstract *objects* as artificial, and as you say, externally imposed. It is this property which makes them “spooks”, imagined, superstition, non-existent.
@@FrozenRat161 Stirner’s critique of Feuerbach for instance, is that the latter takes an *idea* of what humanity is, turns into an ideal of what humanity should aspire to, and thinks that it is any less religious than Christianity. Abstractions are artificial.
Stirner does not claim that ownness is good. He claims that morality is a "spook" - an intellectual master. Ownness is his attempt to conceptualize the essential property of self. His argument against morality is that respecting it without good reason is the same as allowing morality to possess you and have its way with you - to become your owner and the owned is only owned when they abandon ownness. He seems to have written largely to critique the revolutionaries around him as not being very revolutionary. "I am already against the next revolution" being one roughly translated Stirner statement. He thought his contemporaries were creators of new oppressive ideas that would serve to rule people. He also rejected freedom as being a worthwhile goal as its pursuit can chain you just as much as captivity. He definitely was inspired by Nihilism as creating a self able to self-direct seems of great importance to Stirner and I think this makes sense to some extent as if you aren't controlling the ideas that help guide your actions, you certainly are a slave to them and I see that as a lesser "freedom" than traditional conceptions of freedom.
I think he has valuable insight on the ego... that is people should understand they do things because it makes them feel good. Having a sacred goal or higher power doesn't make you better than those who don't share your preoccupation
The psychological egoist position isn’t really a moral position at all, it’s a descriptive position. If Stirner believes what he claims to, then everyone else and him are already adhering to this system, and thusly the world he imagines is simply the world we already live. Even in normative egoism, you don’t escape this. The normative egoist under stirner’s ideas is simply the same as any other man. Following his own desires but deluding himself into believing he understands those desires. It’s all the same expressions of selfishness with no distinction. Egoism is honestly just applied hedonism, granted you might miscalculate in your quest to optimize self fulfillment. It seems like stirner doesn’t quite factor in time into his equations out of some sick desire to reject bondage. He doesn’t want himself constrained to even his own promises, but at the end of the day deciding to constrain yourself to things is also an ego decision. If you choose to keep your promise but feel bad, that just means your brain believed breaking it would be even worse. Stirner doesn’t seem to even think out his own ideas fully.
Miserable are our tiny lifes, we are. Max Stirner was the first to upstand over moral misery, demolishing the sacre, without any support by concepts or believes: god, Man, Humankind, Good, etc..., but only by courage and personal will. In just a word he has been unique.
Although I like your page, I honestly can't disagree with you more. This seems more like a cheap shot at his shortcomings and working class background. Have you even read the Unique and its Property, Stirner's Critics, or Philosophical Reactionaries? He is far more sarcastic than you give him credit for. I see far closer connections to Stirner in the philosophies of zen buddhism and the taoist writings of Lieh-tzu and Yang Zhu(also an egoist philosopher) than to any pessimistic philosophy.
stirner rejected morality because he tried to remain as close to materialism as possible. the idea that the world would devolve further into chaos than it currently does is based on the presumption that egoists wouldn’t enact revenge on those who harmed them. so by murdering whoever you want, you risk in turn being murdered in vengeance, which ultimately does not serve your ego. “shame on the egoist who thinks only of himself” is even stated in the first chapter.
@@senpaixd1346 i mean you can say that, but i think it's more accurate to say he was being poetic. stirner is both a rational and psychological egoist, which means he doesn't think it's possible to not think of ourselves. with that in mind, i think that more makes the line read as saying that not all of our immediate desires alienate us.
I beg to differ. What I found quite striking when reading Mainländer, "the most radical pessimist of all" (according to Th. Lessing), is that, in spite of his obvious fascination with death, he does not come across as a melancholic, depressed, or "pessimistic" (in the conventional sense, that is) character at all. He has so much enthusiasm for his idea and for philosophy in general, lots of sympathy for the world, and is full of confidence in the development that he predicts. Truly fascinating and inspiring!
@@NoSoulNoToll Ah, yes, Jean Améry (among others, including Cioran and Ligotti) describes Weininger's fate in detail in his wonderful 1978 book. He seemed like a legitimately miserable fellow. Gotta check out his work!
The importance of Stirner's thinking will not be found in 'his philosophy', but in his devastating critique of other philosophies. This opens a window of perception. Where you go from there is up to you.