Editing Individualist anarchism (section)

== Early influences ==
=== William Godwin ===
{{main|William Godwin}}
[[File:WilliamGodwin.jpg|thumb|left|[[William Godwin]], a [[Radicalism (historical)|radical liberal]] and [[utilitarian]], who was one of the first to espouse what became known as individualist anarchism]]
William Godwin can be considered an individualist anarchist.<ref name=woodcock20/> Godwin advocated extreme individualism, proposing that all cooperation in labor be eliminated.<ref name=godwineb>"{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Godwin|title=William Godwin|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|access-date=18 August 2024}}</ref> Godwin was a [[Utilitarianism|utilitarian]] who believed that all individuals are not of equal value, with some of us "of more worth and importance" than others depending on our utility in bringing about [[Common good|social good]]. Therefore, he does not believe in equal rights, but the person's life that should be favored that is most conducive to the general good.<ref>{{cite book|first=Paul |last=McLaughlin |title=Anarchism and Authority: A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |year=2007 |page=119|isbn=978-0754661962}}</ref> Godwin opposed government because it infringes on the individual's right to "private judgement" to determine which actions most maximize utility, but also makes a critique of all authority over the individual's judgement. This aspect of Godwin's philosophy, minus the utilitarianism, was developed into a more extreme form later by Stirner.<ref>{{cite book|first=Paul |last=McLaughlin |title=Anarchism and Authority: A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |year=2007 |page=123|isbn=978-0754661962}}</ref>

Godwin took individualism to the radical extent of opposing individuals performing together in [[Orchestra|orchestras]], writing in ''[[Political Justice]]'' that "everything understood by the term co-operation is in some sense an evil".<ref name=godwineb/> He believed [[democracy]] to be preferable to other forms of government.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Marshall |first1=Peter |title=[[William Godwin (biography)|William Godwin]] |date=1984 |language=English |isbn=978-0-300-03175-1 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |oclc=9971338 |page=106 }}</ref>

Godwin's political views were diverse and do not perfectly agree with any of the ideologies that claim his influence as writers of the ''[[Socialist Standard]]'', organ of the [[Socialist Party of Great Britain]], consider Godwin both an individualist and a communist;<ref name="Godwin">"William Godwin, Shelly and Communism" by ALB, The Socialist Standard</ref> [[Murray Rothbard]] did not regard Godwin as being in the individualist camp at all, referring to him as the "founder of [[communist anarchism]]";<ref name="rothbard/burke">Rothbard, Murray. "[http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard11.html Edmund Burke, Anarchist] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20140112124418/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard11.html |date=2014-01-12 }}."</ref> and historian [[Albert Weisbord]] considers him an individualist anarchist without reservation.<ref name="conquest8">{{cite book|last=Weisbord|first=Albert|author-link=Albert Weisbord|title=The Conquest of Power|access-date=2008-08-05|year=1937|publisher=Covici-Friede|location=[[New York City|New York]]|oclc=1019295|chapter=Libertarianism|chapter-url=http://www.weisbord.org/conquest8.htm|archive-date=2018-05-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180523121804/http://www.weisbord.org/conquest8.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ===
{{main|Pierre-Joseph Proudhon}}
[[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]] was the first philosopher to label himself an "anarchist".<ref name=bbc>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20061207.shtml "Anarchism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216180323/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20061207.shtml |date=2009-02-16 }}, [[BBC Radio 4]] program, [[In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)|In Our Time]], Thursday December 7, 2006. Hosted by [[Melvyn Bragg]] of the BBC, with John Keane, Professor of Politics at [[University of Westminster]], [[Ruth Kinna]], Senior Lecturer in Politics at [[Loughborough University]], and [[Peter Marshall (author, born 1946)|Peter Marshall]], philosopher and historian.</ref> Some consider Proudhon to be an individualist anarchist<ref name="Rines">{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia Americana |editor=George Edward Rines |year=1918 |publisher=Encyclopedia Americana Corp. |location=New York |oclc=7308909 |page=624 |title-link=Encyclopedia Americana |chapter=Anarchism |chapter-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn52hq&view=1up&seq=726 }}</ref><ref name="Hamilton 1995 79">{{cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Peter |title=Émile Durkheim |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=1995 |isbn=0415110475 |page=79}}</ref><ref name="Faguet 1970 147">{{cite book |last=Faguet |first=Émile |title=Politicians & Moralists of the Nineteenth Century |publisher=Books for Libraries Press |location=Freeport |year=1970 |isbn=0836918282 |page=147}}</ref> while others regard him to be a [[social anarchism|social anarchist]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bowen|first1=James|last2=Purkis|first2=Jon|title=Changing Anarchism: Anarchist Theory and Practice in a Global Age|url=https://archive.org/details/changinganarchis00bowe|url-access=limited|publisher=Manchester University Press|year=2004|page=[https://archive.org/details/changinganarchis00bowe/page/n30 24]|isbn=9780719066948}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Knowles|first=Rob|title=Political Economy From Below: Communitarian Anarchism as a Neglected Discourse in Histories of Economic Thought|journal=History of Economics Review|volume=31|pages=30–47|number=31|date=Winter 2000|doi=10.1080/10370196.2000.11733332|s2cid=141027974}}</ref> Some commentators do not identify Proudhon as an individualist anarchist due to his preference for association in large industries rather than individual control.<ref name=woodcock20/>

=== Max Stirner ===
{{main|Max Stirner}}
[[File:Max stirner.jpg|thumb|Portrait of [[Max Stirner]] by [[Friedrich Engels]]]]
Johann Kaspar Schmidt, better known as Max Stirner (the ''[[nom de plume]]'' he adopted from a schoolyard nickname he had acquired as a child because of his high brow, in German ''Stirn''), was a German [[philosopher]] who ranks as one of the literary fathers of [[nihilism]], [[existentialism]], [[post-modernism]] and [[anarchism]], especially of individualist anarchism. Stirner's main work is ''[[The Ego and Its Own]]'', also known as ''The Ego and His Own'' (''Der Einzige und sein Eigentum'' in German which translates literally as ''The Only One [individual] and his Property'' or ''The Unique Individual and His Property'').<ref>Moggach, Douglas. The New Hegelians. Cambridge University Press. p. 177.</ref> This work was first published in 1844 in [[Leipzig]] and has since appeared in numerous editions and translations.

==== Egoism ====
{{main|Egoist anarchism|Philosophy of Max Stirner}}
{{see also|Ethical egoism|Moral nihilism}}
[[Max Stirner]]'s philosophy, sometimes called egoism, is a form of individualist anarchism.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=David Goodway|last=Goodway |first=David |title=Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow |publisher=Liverpool University Press |year=2006 |page=[https://archive.org/details/anarchistseedsbe00good/page/n111 99]|isbn=1846310261|title-link=Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow }}</ref> Stirner was a [[Young Hegelians|Hegelian]] philosopher whose "name appears with familiar regularity in historically oriented surveys of anarchist thought as one of the earliest and best-known exponents of individualist anarchism".<ref name=stirnersep/> In 1844, Stirner's work ''[[The Ego and Its Own]]'' was published and is considered to be "a founding text in the tradition of individualist anarchism".<ref name=stirnersep/> Stirner does not recommend that the individual try to eliminate the state, but simply that they disregard the state when it conflicts with one's autonomous choices and go along with it when doing so is conducive to one's interests.<ref>Moggach, Douglas. The New Hegelians. Cambridge University Press, 2006 p. 190.</ref> Stirner says that the egoist rejects pursuit of devotion to "a great idea, a good cause, a doctrine, a system, a lofty calling", arguing that the egoist has no political calling, but rather "lives themselves out" without regard to "how well or ill humanity may fare thereby".<ref>Moggach, Douglas. The New Hegelians. Cambridge University Press, 2006 p. 183.</ref> Stirner held that the only limitation on the rights of the individual is that individual's power to obtain what he desires.<ref>The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge. Encyclopedia Corporation. p. 176</ref> Stirner proposes that most commonly accepted social institutions, including the notion of [[State (polity)|state]], [[property as a right]], [[natural rights]] in general and the very notion of "society" as a legal and ideal abstractness, were mere spooks in the mind. Stirner wants to "abolish not only the state but also society as an institution responsible for its members".<ref>Heider, Ulrike. ''Anarchism: Left, Right and Green'', San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1994, pp. 95–96</ref> Stirner advocated self-assertion and foresaw [[Union of egoists]], non-systematic associations which he proposed in as a form of organization in place of the state.<ref name=karl>{{cite book | last = Thomas | first = Paul |author-link=Paul Thomas (Marx scholar) |title=[[Karl Marx and the Anarchists]] | publisher = [[Routledge]]/[[Kegan Paul]] | location = London | year = 1985 | isbn = 0710206852 |page=[https://archive.org/details/karlmarxanarchis00thom/page/n146 142]}}</ref> A Union is understood as a relation between egoists which is continually renewed by all parties' support through an act of will.<ref name=woodcock20/><ref name="nonserviam">{{cite journal|url=http://i-studies.com/journal/n/pdf/nsi-17.pdf#page=13 |title=The union of egoists |journal=Non Serviam |volume=1 |first=Svein Olav |last=Nyberg |pages=13–14 |location=Oslo, Norway |publisher=Svein Olav Nyberg |oclc=47758413 |access-date=1 September 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207042220/http://i-studies.com/journal/n/pdf/nsi-17.pdf |archive-date=7 December 2010 }}</ref> Even murder is permissible "if it is right for me",<ref>Moggach, Douglas. The New Hegelians. Cambridge University Press, 2006 p. 191</ref> although it is claimed by egoist anarchists that egoism will foster genuine and spontaneous unions between individuals.<ref name=carlson>{{cite book | last = Carlson | first = Andrew | title = Anarchism in Germany |title-link=Anarchism in Germany (book) | publisher = Scarecrow Press | location = Metuchen | year = 1972 | isbn = 0810804840 | chapter-url = http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/carlson.html | chapter = Philosophical Egoism: German Antecedents | access-date = 2008-12-04 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081210202509/http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/carlson.html | archive-date = 2008-12-10 }}</ref>

Stirner's concept of "egoistic property" not only a lack of moral restraint on how one obtains and uses ''things'', but includes other people as well.<ref>Moggach, Douglas. The New Hegelians. Cambridge University Press, 2006 p. 194</ref> His embrace of egotism is in stark contrast to Godwin's [[altruism]]. Although Stirner was opposed to [[communism]], for the same reasons he opposed [[capitalism]], [[humanism]], [[liberalism]], [[Property rights (economics)|property rights]] and [[nationalism]], seeing them as forms of authority over the individual and as spooks in the mind, he has influenced many [[anarcho-communists]] and [[post-left anarchists]]. The writers of ''An Anarchist FAQ'' report that "many in the anarchist movement in Glasgow, Scotland, took Stirner's 'Union of egoists' literally as the basis for their [[anarcho-syndicalist]] organising in the 1940s and beyond". Similarly, the noted anarchist historian [[Max Nettlau]] states that "[o]n reading Stirner, I maintain that he cannot be interpreted except in a socialist sense".<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=McKay|editor-first=Iain|year=2012|chapter=What are the ideas of Max Stirner?|title=An Anarchist FAQ|volume=II|location=Stirling|publisher=AK Press|isbn=9781849351225}}</ref>

This position on property is quite different from the native American, natural law, form of individualist anarchism which defends the inviolability of the [[private property]] that has been earned through labor.<ref>[[David Weir (academic)|Weir]], David. Anarchy & Culture. [[University of Massachusetts Press]]. 1997. p. 146</ref> Other egoists include [[James L. Walker]], [[Sidney Parker (anarchist)|Sidney Parker]], [[Dora Marsden]] and [[John Beverley Robinson (anarchist)|John Beverly Robinson]]. In Russia, individualist anarchism inspired by Stirner combined with an appreciation for [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] attracted a small following of bohemian artists and intellectuals such as [[Lev Chernyi]] as well as a few lone wolves who found self-expression in crime and violence.<ref name=levy>Levy, Carl. "[http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761568770_1/Anarchism.html Anarchism]". Microsoft [[Encarta]] Online Encyclopedia 2007. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091013001858/http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761568770_1/Anarchism.html |date=20091031000000 }} 2009-10-31.</ref> They rejected organizing, believing that only unorganized individuals were safe from coercion and domination, believing this kept them true to the ideals of anarchism.<ref>Avrich, Paul. "The Anarchists in the Russian Revolution". ''Russian Review'', Vol. 26, No. 4. (Oct., 1967). p. 343</ref> This type of individualist anarchism inspired [[anarcha-feminist]] [[Emma Goldman]].<ref name=levy/>

=== Early individualist anarchism in the United States ===

The [[Intentional community|intentional communal]] experiments pioneered by [[Josiah Warren]] influenced [[European individualist anarchism|European individualist anarchists]] of the late 19th and early 20th centuries such as [[Émile Armand]] and the intentional communities they founded.{{sfn|Díez|2007|p=42}}

The American version of individualist anarchism has a strong emphasis on the [[non-aggression principle]] and [[Self-ownership|individual sovereignty]].<ref name="Madison">{{cite journal |author=Madison, Charles A. |year=1945 |title=Anarchism in the United States |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=46–66 |jstor=2707055 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |doi=10.2307/2707055 }}</ref> Some individualist anarchists such as Thoreau<ref>Johnson, Ellwood. ''The Goodly Word: The Puritan Influence in America Literature'', Clements Publishing, 2005, p. 138.</ref><ref>''Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences'', edited by Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman, Alvin Saunders Johnson, 1937, p. 12.</ref> do not speak of economics, but simply of the right of "disunion" from the state and foresee the gradual elimination of the state through social evolution.