Stirner's Egoism as outlined in his magnum opus The Unique and Its Property (1844) is a philosophy of self-ownership. Specifically, it's interested in Worlds of Perception (to me, everything exists as it does to me) — it is about accountability, how you have no access to anything 'outside' of you, 'higher' than you, existing 'beyond' you, or any power to make sense of the world other than your own judgement. You have only what you have, what is available and accessible to you: you have only your own world and your own power.
This post will be broken down into three parts:
- Introduction (halfway through!)
- Being Possessed: Alienation
- Self-Possession: Egoism
>Stirner dares to say that Feuerbach, Hess and Szeliga are egoists. Indeed, he is content here with saying nothing more than if he had said Feuerbach does absolutely nothing but the Feuerbachian, Hess does nothing but the Hessian, and Szeliga does nothing but the Szeligan; but he has given them an infamous label.
(...)
And like Feuerbach, no one lives in any other world than his own, and like Feuerbach, everyone is the center of his own world. World is only what he himself is not, but what belongs to him, is in a relationship with him, exists for him.
Everything turns around you; you are the center of the outer world and of the thought world. Your world extends as far as your capacity, and what you grasp is your own simply because you grasp it.
It may be wise to ground Stirner first in why this matters and how Stirner uses this 'Egoism', this philosophy of self-ownership and accountability only to ones World and (creative/destructive) power (judgement, ideas acquire their form and content only through you).
Being Possessed: Alienation
Let us look at the only alternative to Egoism, not self-possession but being possessed, not looking at ones ideas as their property but placing them outside their World and power:
> Do we only ever encounter those possessed by the devil, or do we just as often encounter those possessed by the opposite, possessed by the good, by virtue, by morality, by the law, or by any other “principle”? Possessions by the devil are not the only ones. God acts in us, and so does the devil; the former, “acts of grace,” the latter, “acts of the devil.” Possessed people are set in their opinions.
You become possessed when you do not look to your own judgement (your own creative power) but rather put an idea beyond your judgement (it is Absolute, Sacred, it has a fixed content). Your idea, a creation of your judgement, becomes than the judging power itself. My creation has become stronger than I am, has withdrawn from my World and power, it now masters me and determines my behavior.
But because I am scared to touch it, it becomes stationary: it acquires a fixed content. I no longer determine the content of this idea because it exists 'beyond' me, 'above' me, 'outside' me, and has detached itself from me to acquire an independent existence.
You have resigned your power, forgotten your world, and lost your ability to use what you have. You have become possessed by setting up something existing beyond and outside of your familiarity and power: you have lowered yourself and raised up something Sacred. Now you are controlled by a ‘fixed idea’ and rail up against yourself.
The Christian restricts his self-determination to follow divine commandments, troubles himself with faith, and rails against himself for sin. The Liberal respects human rights and treats everyone as his equal, acting not to ‘unfairly’ discriminate, to not become 'inhuman' (insufficiently empathetic, civically-minded). The Nationalist and Patriot must throw himself down before the Nation, no matter how much sacrifice it demands. The Conservatives restrict their self-determination before Tradition and rails against the world for not fitting their ideal. The morally-minded restrict their passions and interests.
So it is with all the possessed — resignation, humiliation, possession, and subjection.
But if you refuse possession, if you assert yourself rather than resign yourself, if you recognize ideas as your property rather than yourself as theirs, determine them rather than let them determine you, if you deny them an independent existence and ground them in their dependence on your power (through which they come to exist), then you become their owner, their master, a sovereign Creator accountable only to yourself — because they have only yourself, your own World and power.
Resignation—Ideas escape your world (acquire an independent existence: "Higher", "Outside", and "Beyond" you) and power ('Sacred' or 'Absolute'), develop a 'fixed' content, and come to determine and possess you
Assertation—Ideas exist only in your world and come to being through your creative power, dependent on you, are 'lowly', 'vain', 'mere property', as transient as you are, and are determined/possessed by you
Self-Possession: Egoism, Stirner's Positive Project
Whenever an idea escapes your world/power, it becomes inaccessible and unconquerable. Stirner asserts that I only have what is available and accessible to me, what is in my world — I recognize only my own world and my own creative power because I only have this, am accountable only to this, have nothing but this.
Stirner practices accountability by falling back only on his own World and his own power (since you only have 'these' ideas and 'this' power to make sense of it all), he recenters his own judgement (creative/destructive power over ideas) and asserts this thinking as stronger than any individual thought (unlike a Sacred or Absolute one). To me, everything exists only as it does to me, within my world, is—mine, my property, which I use and dispose of according to my own self-determination and my capability.
No more is anything 'Sacred', 'higher', nor does anything exist 'beyond' me or 'outside' me, I take everything as it does to me and follow only my own determination. I am an Egoist, liable to no God, no licensing authority, no Morality (Mores = social consciousness of 'correct' habit, it is immoral to refuse a handshake or kiss someone as a greeting), no 'higher cause' (all 'Higher Causes' care only for their own advancement), no 'calling', no 'rights', no 'obligations', no 'laws', and no 'duties'. I am the content of my own affair, accountable only to my own world and my own (sovereign) power — much like God, I have only myself and can serve nothing other than myself.
Stirner's Egoism is this simple: it's a philosophy of self-ownership/possession against being owned/possessed by the Sacred (controlled by ideas reified outside and above yourself, now more powerful than your power through which they come to exist and controlling you).