The Ego and Its Own

Book excerpt: Claimed repeatedly to be the most radical book ever written, The Ego And Its Own throws down a challenge to thousands of years of religious, philosophical and political depreciation of the individual. Criticising all doctrines and beliefs that demand the interests of the individual be subordinated to those of God, state, humanity, society, or some other fiction, Stirner declared war on all creeds that threatened individuality. In doing so, he championed a form of amoral egoism which still provokes cries of horror from moralists of right and left, religious and secular. The classic, from one of the founding fathers of anarchist thought, and a passionate defence of the individual against all forms of authority.