Philosophical anarchism
Part of a series on |
Anarchism |
---|
Part of a series on |
Libertarianism |
---|
Philosophical anarchism is an
The scholar
Overview
Types and variations
As conceived by William Godwin, philosophical anarchism requires individuals to act in accordance with their own judgments and to allow every other individual the same liberty. Conceived as egoistically by Max Stirner, it implies that the unique one who truly owns himself recognizes no duties to others. Within the limit of his might, he does what is right for him.[9]
Rather than taking up arms to bring down the state, philosophical anarchists "have worked for a gradual change to free the individual from what they thought were the oppressive laws and social constraints of the modern state and allow all individuals to become self-determining and value-creating." Those anarchists may oppose the immediate elimination of the state by violent means out of concern that what remains might be vulnerable to the establishment of a yet more harmful and oppressive state. That is especially true among those anarchists who consider violence and the state as synonymous or that it is counterproductive if public reaction to violence results in increased "law enforcement" efforts.[10]
Political and philosophical anarchism
Magda Egoumenides writes, "The anarchist criticisms and ideal of legitimacy explain the link between philosophical and political anarchism: they remind us that the enduring deficiency of the state is a position that is initially shared by both forms of anarchism, and the moral criteria of philosophical anarchism are intended to be inherent in the society that political anarchism seeks to create." According to Egoumenides, "A demonstration of the compatibility of political anarchist social visions with the perspective and ideals of legitimacy of critical philosophical anarchism establishes a continuity within the anarchist ideology."[11]
Michael Huemer writes, "In the terminology of contemporary political philosophy, I have so far defended philosophical anarchism (the view that there are no political obligations), but I have yet to defend political anarchism (the view that government should be abolished)." He argues that "the terminology is misleading" since "both kinds of 'anarchism' are philosophical and political claims."[12]
Criticism
Philosophical anarchism has met the criticism of members of academia following the release of pro-
The law professor William A. Edmundson authored an essay arguing against three major philosophical anarchist principles that he finds fallacious. Edmundson claims that the individual does not owe a normal state a duty of obedience, but he considers that not to imply that anarchism is the inevitable conclusion and the state is still morally legitimate.[16]
Another criticism of philosophical anarchism is that it remains purely theoretical. In failing to act out anarchism in the real world, philosophical anarchism is seen as a bourgeois convenience that actually serves the status quo, rather than destroying it.[17]
References
- ^ Wayne Gabardi, review Archived 2017-06-11 at the Wayback Machine of Anarchism by David Miller, published in American Political Science Review Vol. 80, No. 1. (Mar. 1986), pp. 300–302.
- from the original on 2023-08-05. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
- from the original on 13 June 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
- ^ Antliff, Allan. 2001. Anarchist Modernism: Art, Politics, and the First American Avant-Garde. University of Chicago Press. p. 4.
- ^ Outhwaite, William & Tourain, Alain (Eds.). (2003). "Anarchism." The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought (2nd Edition, p. 12). Blackwell Publishing.
- ISBN 0-19-829414-X. pp. 313–314.
- ^ Tucker, Benjamin R., Instead of a Book, by a Man too Busy to Write One: A Fragmentary Exposition of Philosophical Anarchism (1897, New York).
- ^ Broderick, John C. "Thoreau's Proposals for Legislation." American Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Autumn, 1955). p. 285.
- ^ Outhwaite, William & Tourain, Alain (Eds.). (2003). "Anarchism," in The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought. (2nd Edition, p. 12). Blackwell Publishing.
- ^ Murphy, Brenda. The Provincetown Players and the Culture of Modernity. Cambridge University Press 2005. pp. 31–32.
- ISBN 978-1-4411-2445-6.
- ISBN 9781137281647.
- S2CID 144417469.
- ISBN 9780199388837.
- ISBN 9781000222647.
- JSTOR 2660038.
- ^ Fiala, Andrew (2021), "Anarchism", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, archived from the original on 2023-02-19, retrieved 2023-06-17