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The Ego and Its Own

Max Stirner · 1844

Stirner's major 1844 book setting out his philosophy of egoism and his attack on the state, morality and other 'spooks'.

This is Stirner's own major work, the book that defines his entire philosophy of egoism.

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Title page of Max Stirner's 'Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum' in black blackletter type. Text reads 'Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum', 'von Max Stirner', 'Leipzig, Verlag von Otto Wigand, 1845'.
Max Stirner, title page of Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum, Leipzig, 1844/45.

About this source

What it is

This is Der Einzige und sein Eigentum (also translated as The Ego and Its Own), the main philosophical work of Max Stirner, first published in 1844.

In it Stirner lays out a view of history in three stages and argues that ideas like God, morality, humanity and the state are 'spooks' that control people's minds. He calls instead for radical individual self-ownership and a free 'union of egoists'.

Why it matters

The book shocked many of Stirner's fellow Young Hegelian thinkers, including Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who later wrote long rebuttals of it. It has since been seen as an important influence on anarchism, existentialism and other later movements.

Look closer

  • Why might Stirner have chosen the title 'The Ego and Its Own'?
  • What kind of reader do you think Stirner was trying to provoke?
  • Why do you think his ideas about 'spooks' upset other philosophers of his time?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Max Stirner on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Pen-and-ink caricature drawing on paper of a group of men in a room with candles and a chandelier. A stout man on the left gestures with raised hands, while others crowd around a central figure, one man raising his arm, and a seated man at a table with bottles and glasses on the right. Labels are written along the bottom.Painting

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Masthead and contents page of The Egoist, An Individualist Review, No. 14, Vol. 1, Wednesday July 15th 1914, sixpence. Lists editors Harriet Shaw Weaver and Richard Aldington, contributing editor Dora Marsden, and table of contents.Newspaper article

Secondary source

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15 July 1914

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