Philosophical anarchism

Philosophical anarchism is an anarchist school of thought[1] which holds that the state lacks moral legitimacy while not supporting violence to eliminate it.[2] Though philosophical anarchism does not necessarily imply any action or desire for the elimination of the state, philosophical anarchists do not believe that they have an obligation or duty to obey the state, or conversely that the state has a right to command. Philosophical anarchism is a component especially of individualist anarchism.[3]

Scholar Michael Freeden identifies four broad types of individualist anarchism. He says the first is the type associated with William Godwin that advocates self-government with a "progressive rationalism that included benevolence to others". The second type is egoism, most associated with Max Stirner. The third type is "found in Herbert Spencer's early predictions, and in that of some of his disciples such as Donisthorpe, foreseeing the redundancy of the state in the source of social evolution". The fourth type retains a moderated form of egoism and accounts for social cooperation through the advocacy of the market,[4] having such followers as Benjamin Tucker[5] and Henry David Thoreau.[6]

Variations

Philosophical anarchists may accept the existence of a minimal state as an unfortunate and usually temporary "necessary evil", but they argue that citizens do not have a moral obligation to obey the state when its laws conflict with individual autonomy.[7] As conceived by William Godwin, it requires individuals to act in accordance with their own judgments and to allow every other individual the same liberty; conceived egoistically as 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.[8]

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".[9] They 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. This is especially true among those anarchists who consider violence and the state as synonymous, or who consider it counterproductive where public reaction to violence results in increased "law enforcement" efforts.

Many traditional conservatives identify themselves as anarchists on account of their opposition to state control, yet they support the ordering by rank of social groups such as families, churches, corporations, clubs and even countries. For this reason, Brian Patrick Mitchell proposes that such conservatives be called "akratists" instead of anarchists because they accept the "archy" of social rank and only oppose the "kratos" of state control in contrast to individualist anarchists, who reject both social "archy" and political "kratos".[10]

Notes

  1. ↑ Wayne Gabardi, review of Anarchism by David Miller, published in American Political Science Review Vol. 80, No. 1. (Mar., 1986), pp. 300–302.
  2. ↑ According to scholar Allan Antliff, Benjamin Tucker coined the term "philosophical anarchism," to distinguish peaceful evolutionary anarchism from revolutionary variants. Antliff, Allan. 2001. Anarchist Modernism: Art, Politics, and the First American Avant-Garde. University of Chicago Press. p. 4.
  3. ↑ Outhwaite, William & Tourain, Alain (Eds.). (2003). "Anarchism." The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought (2nd Edition, p. 12). Blackwell Publishing.
  4. ↑ Freeden, Michael. Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-829414-X. pp. 313–314.
  5. ↑ Tucker, Benjamin R., Instead of a Book, by a Man too Busy to Write One: A Fragmentary Exposition of Philosophical Anarchism (1897, New York).
  6. ↑ Broderick, John C. "Thoreau's Proposals for Legislation." American Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Autumn, 1955). p. 285.
  7. ↑ Klosko, George. Political Obligations. Oxford University Press 2005. p. 4
  8. ↑ Outhwaite, William & Tourain, Alain (Eds.). (2003). "Anarchism," in The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought. (2nd Edition, p. 12). Blackwell Publishing.
  9. ↑ Murphy, Brenda. The Provincetown Players and the Culture of Modernity. Cambridge University Press 2005. pp. 31–32.
  10. ↑ Brian Patrick Mitchell, Eight Ways to Run the Country, Praeger, 2006.
  • Dobos, Ned. "Philosophical anarchism". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  • Philosophical anarchism in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
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