STIRNER, MAX. — Pseudonym of the philosopher Johann Caspar Schmidt, born on 25 October 1806 in Bayreuth, died on 25 June 1856 in Berlin. He studied (1826–28; 1832–34) philosophy, classical philology, and theology in Berlin, Hegel (v.) Schleiermacher (v.), then in Erlangen and Königsberg. After living as a tutor, private teacher, and journalist, he spent the final years of his life in poverty.
His principal work, for which he is widely known, is Der Einzige und sein Eigentum (Leipzig 1845; various editions after the 3rd, ibid. 1901; Italian translation [*L'Unico] and introduction by E. Zoccoli, Turin 1902). Also deserving mention are the Kleinere Schriften and the Entgegnungen auf die Kritik seines Werkes «Der Einz. u. z. Eig.» (ed. by J. H. Mackay, Berlin 1898; Italian translation [Repliche ai suoi critici] by A. Treves, Milan 1923), as well as Die Gesch. der Reaktion (2 vols., Berlin 1852); Das unwahre Prinzip unserer Erziehung ed. d. Humanismus u. d. Realismus* (Leipzig-Charlottenburg 1911; Basel 1927).
S. belonged to the Hegelian left; he criticized Hegel’s dialectic, proclaiming at the same time, against every form of historicism (v.), the irreducible individual (v.), the principle of every value, thought, and action. Hence the vehement criticism with which he opposed the schemes of every religious, moral, historical, and political ideology, which, for him, were disguises for interests that must be abolished before the new individualism (v.). In the attempt to realize the ideal together with Hegel lies the error of the modern world.
S.’s doctrine has therefore been regarded as the most rigorous form of immoralism and anarchism. The presence of certain existentialist elements in his thought cannot be ruled out. Thus the Stirnerian «Unique» would appear as the genuine existent, destined to arise from nothingness and to sink back into II. It should nevertheless be observed that many existentialists, like Hegelianism itself, seek to pose the moral problem on foundations that S. totally rejects. The study devoted to S.’s thought has presented it chiefly under the political aspect of anarchism arising from the new premises of a radically and rigorously individualistic ideology.