The Philosophy of Egoism

by James L. Walker

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

Genres: Theory, Philosophy

First published June 1, 1972

Reviews

[Melvin Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will serve as a good introduction to egoism for people in the English-speaking world. The Unique and its Property is probably the better place to start, at least from a historical perspective. But, for English readers, the translated version of The Unique is much more difficult to read than this text.

[Maurizio · Rating 5 out of 5]

In parole ciò che penso da sempre, capito già dalla sinossi. L’opera si sviluppa poi in vari campi e su varie discussioni, esegesi di una filosofia ben più ampia e radicale, condivisibile o meno, indispensabile per avere uno sguardo più ampio sui moventi dell’uomo.

[Apio · Rating 4 out of 5]

James L. Walker was the first person to introduce Max Stirner's ideas to English-speaking anarchists (and others) in Benjamin Tucker's publication, Liberty. In this book, he summarized his understanding of egoism as drawn from Stirner. Walker wrote clearly, with humor, and with pithy statements that merit quoting. If his ideas sometimes reflect certain of the limits of 19th century American individualist anarchists, nonetheless, he maintained a strong anti-moralist perspective (in this way showing a much deeper understanding of Stirner and of egoism than Tucker). Though he tried to salvage egoist meanings for such words as "justice," "duty," and "altruism," as I read through his critiques in the book, I realized that he did thoroughly demolish them as fixed ideas... For me, this would mean ceasing to use the words in any positive way. He chose, instead, to make them so personal as to have no possible universal meaning. In any case, the book is well worth reading for those interested in egoism.

[Kath]

great