Stirner's Critics

by Max Stirner, Jason McQuinn (Introduction), Wolfi Landstreicher (Translator)

Brand new translation of Stirner's responses to his critics, translated with care by Wolfi Landstreicher, with an introduction by Jason McQuinn.

"Max Stirner’s 1844 masterwork, Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum (The Unique and Its Property), is one of the most subversive, radical and extreme texts in all of history. It can also be described as one of the most misread, misinterpreted and misunderstood books in the history of modern Western thought. This should not be unexpected. Subversive, radical and extreme texts will always obtain hostile receptions from those targeted by their critiques, whether the critiques are accurate and justified or not.

The book is rather simply – though very cleverly – written with very little use of technical terminology. And Stirner goes out of his way in an attempt to use common language wherever possible, though he often does so very creatively and idiosyncratically. It is also a fairly demanding text for anyone (including nearly every contemporary reader) who is unfamiliar with the cultural background within which it was conceived, written and published. It is possible for it to be read and appreciated without knowledge of this background, however the prospect of adequate understanding – not only of the central points but also their extensive implications – definitely recedes the less a reader is familiar with topics like nominalism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, analytical and dialectical logic, and critiques of religion, ontology, epistemology, ideology and language that were current in Stirner’s day.

From the moment Stirner’s text first appeared, it directly and fundamentally challenged every religion, philosophy and ideology. It didn’t just politely challenge every existing historical religion, philosophy and ideology, which would already have been enough to have made its author many enemies. It also blatantly and scathingly challenged every existing contemporary religion, philosophy and ideology of the day. This, unsurprisingly, made its author persona non grata for all theologians, philosophers and ideologists busily working to perfect or put into practice their grand ideas and theories.

Thus the stage was set for over a century and a half of (most often successful, because most often unopposed) mystification of Stirner’s intentions by his many critics from 1844 through the present. Even the great majority of self-proclaimed proponents of Stirner’s work too often tended to add to the mystification through their own misunderstandings and unself-critical oversimplifications."

-from the introduction

Genres: Philosophy, Essays, Politics, Nonfiction, Anarchism

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1845

About the author

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 grandfathers 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 and his Property"). This work was first published in 1844 in Leipzig, and has since appeared in numerous editions and translations.

Reviews

[Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Basically just a nice extension of The Unique, the writing here is just as good and it contains some of my favourite quotes from Stirner, such as "Stirner names the unique..." and "not against love, but against sacred love...". It being way shorter than The Unique is a bonus. There's honestly no reason not to read this if you liked Stirner's main work.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Some parts of The Unique and its Property were made clearer, but for the most part it felt like people writing just to put words on paper, especially the intro.

[Lourvens Pierre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would say this book is a 3 star book but I had to add an extra star for Stirner referring to himself in 3rd person, it made me giggle every time.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would've maybe given it one more star if it wasn't for Jason McQuinn's frankly obnoxious and frustrating introduction which took up nearly half the goddamn book, with footnotes whole pages long which at times felt like filler and at other times were downright self-indulgent (for example, at one point Mr. McQuinn goes on about his humbly named, "McQuinn's law" which wasn't as original or profound as he presented it to be, and it was barely even related to the topic at hand).

I'd also caution future readers to take many of McQuinn's claims with a massive dose of salt (such as his dubious claims about Stirner's supposed influence on Nietzsche, the very arguable claim that Stirner's philosophy contains no presuppositions or that Stirner wasn't even a philosopher at all).

But once you get through the massive blemish that is Jason McQuinn's introduction, the rest of the book is just fine.

[James Perkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

a decent defense of Stirner's blend of egoism against claims of solipsistic thinking and religion. I feel the solipsistic thinking one is the best as i hear that claim used to discredit egoism the most, when really it's just basic contractualism.

On the other hand its defense of Stirner absolutely refusing to define a word despite continually trying to use it (the unique), is completely terrible. If you want to communicate a concept, you should be able to define it, if youre adamantly using a word you cant even define atleast partially, then you should go talk with socrates until you figure it out.

All in all i agree with (most) of stirner's conclusions, i just think his ideas on what the Unique is are too vague and abstract to be as real and grounded as he proclaims his ideas to be. Had he been alive today, maybe he couldve used behavioral theory or some other system or school of thought to actually explain what it is he believes is "you" or "i".

[Marina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um guia de Stirner para bananas (intelectualóides de todo o género). Com uma introdução picante e esclarecedora, até talvez em demasiado detalhe, através do uso da linguagem dos próprios filósofos, o que por um lado não deve ser interpretado como um ato de fé, mas como bater no ceguinho, o que é interessante de ler, até um certo ponto. Ri-me bastante.
Em relação aos textos de Stirner a responder aos seus "críticos", ele mantém da sua parte uma astúcia e uma atitude mordaz, já presente no seu Magnum opus, mas desta vez menos poético, porque não dá para dar pérolas a porcos. Recomendo para quem está interessado em si próprio, no Stirner e em dar umas risadas. Não recomendo para os obcecados de ideias fixas, sendo que é um livro frustrante de ler através dessa perspectiva.

[Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the Wolfi Landstreicher which, judging from the other reviews on here, has a much briefer intro than other versions. I thought the translation itself was quite good and that he did a great job of bringing across what Stirner was saying. I think that the text itself is pretty much required reading after finishing "The Unique and Its Own" if you really want to understand Stirner as he writes much clearer in this. As such, he really helped to clarify a lot of points in a very succinct manner.

[Tvrtko Balić · Rating 3 out of 5]

This essay by Stirner isn't exactly bad... it's more just unnecessary. The Ego and Its Own was a good book, it did not need this. This response to its critics clarifies some aspects of it, sure, but mostly it is just boring and sometime inadvertently proves his critics points. It's just more of the same but not as good.

[Painteam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eğer Biricik ve Mülkiyeti'ni okuduysanız şiddetle tavsiye ederim.Özellikle Stirner'ın genel kullanımından farklı şekilde ele aldığı sözcüklerin ne manaya geldiğini daha net anlamak ve esas kitabında üstünde pek durmadığı "Egoistler birliği"nden kastettiği şeyin ne olduğunu anlamak için bunu okumanızda fayda var.Kendi adıma,bunu okuduktan sonra bütün taşlar yerine oturdu diyebilirim.

[Fortuna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muchas palabras del egohombre mismo de nuevo. Al final del día la mayoría de las críticas se resumen en "¿Tú realmente leíste mi libro que tanto criticas?" y la respuesta es no. Stirner pasa por la piedra tan fuertemente a Hess que este debe haberse suicidado al leer esto.

[PantsOP · Rating 4 out of 5]

People who hate the forehead man are still using the same bad arguments almost two centuries later, so this isn't really any less relevant than when it was written.

[Ehsan Ghazavi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading after The Unique and its Property

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stirner's writing is so idiosyncratic as to be quite distracting and overall, it felt to me like the book was a bit redundant. It's been recommended as an intro to Stirner, but having had a basic sympathetic understanding to his ideas, I found this book to be largely unnecessary for me, given the effort it takes to read.