Second Annual Max Stirner Symposium

Stirner and the Theory of Anarchism

Max Stirner has been largely excluded from traditional academic discourse, with much of the work on him being produced within the anarchist tradition. This year’s annual Max Stirner Symposium seeks to rectify this academic exclusion while simultaneously respecting the non-academic contributions to Stirner scholarship by setting the theme of the conference as “Stirner and Anarchist Theory.” This includes a variety of approaches from purely philosophical questions related to anarchism, to the ways in which anarchist theory expands or restricts possible anarchist praxis. 

We seek to investigate questions like: What can Stirner say about the metaphysical or ontological basis of anarchism? Does Stirner provide us with a sufficient theoretical grounding for his anarchist praxis? Can Stirner’s theory of subjectivity withstand the 20th Century critiques of the subject? Does Stirner instead prefigure some of these critiques of subjectivity? What is the status of the legitimacy of metaphysics for Stirner? Does he reject or rely on metaphysics? Do the developments of phenomenology pose problems for Stirner’s notion of property? What is the status of the subject-object dichotomy for Stirner? Can the centrality of the self as an egoist be defended? What are the advantages and disadvantages of a theoretical individualism for political praxis? Is theory even important to Stirner? Is his philosophy instead an atheoretical approach to ethics? What is the basis for organization for Stirner if any? Does the notion of the Unique problematize organizing, or does it aid it? Is organizing possible for an individualist theory?

Schedule: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F3QFtfLTK0mWuettp4H2jdi-Adt38a8ZID2bYJJO-NQ/edit?usp=sharing