Max Stirner - Ownness

Summary

In this engaging discussion, the focus is on Max Stirner's unique approach to egoism, differentiating it from the traditional psychological and ethical egoism. Stirner advocates for "ownness," a form of self-mastery and individual autonomy, rather than prescribing moral obligations or acting purely out of self-interest. The concept of ownness emphasizes rejecting external authorities and obligations, encouraging individuals to view everything, including their desires and societal constructs, as tools for personal use. Stirner's philosophy challenges the notion of freedom, arguing for an active assertion of one's autonomy rather than freedom as granted by others. This fundamental idea questions reification, where abstract concepts are treated as authoritative. The video delves into these philosophical insights, contrasting Stirner's views with other thinkers like Ayn Rand, setting the stage for further exploration in political contexts.

Highlights

• Introduction to Max Stirner's critique of conventional egoism forms. 🎙️
• Explanation of 'psychological' and 'ethical' egoism. 🤔
• Introduction to Stirner's concept of 'ownness'. 🧙‍♂️
• Analysis of societal norms and how they impose constraints on individual autonomy. 🏗️
• Breaking down Stirner's unique perspective on freedom vs. ownness. 🚀

Key Takeaways

• Max Stirner's egoism is about self-mastery and autonomy, not mere self-interest. 🧠
• Stirner introduces the concept of 'ownness', rejecting external authority and moral obligations. 🚫
• Ownness is about treating one's desires and societal constructs as tools for personal use. 🛠️
• Stirner critiques the concept of freedom as typically reliant on external permissions. 🚪
• Reification is challenged as people often treat abstract ideals like 'freedom' as authorities. 🌌

Overview

Max Stirner's perspectives offer a thought-provoking twist on egoism. Unlike typical egoists who might merely balk at moral dictates or pursue selfish desires, Stirner's philosophy elevates the individual into a realm of utter autonomy. His vision of 'ownness' proposes that true self-mastery requires obliterating all external controls, including the ones seemingly imposed by societal norms, moral obligations, or even one's desires.

Central to Stirner's philosophy is the critique of reification—where abstract entities like 'society', 'morality', or 'freedom' are treated as if they hold power over individuals. Stirner dismantles such constructs, viewing them as tools that individuals must wield for personal gain rather than obey as external authorities. This radical individualism sidelines the typical narrative that binds power to external validation or moral conformity.

In critiquing concepts like freedom, Stirner illuminates the notion that what is typically seen as liberation often merely replaces one set of constraints with another. Freedom, he suggests, is only worth its weight if it truly serves the individual's own interests. Through owning one's actions and viewing every element of life as a personal possession, Stirner's egoism encourages us to actively shape our existence rather than passively accept predefined paths.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Max Stirner's philosophy In the introduction to Max Stirner's philosophy, the speaker clarifies that they will focus on aspects of Stirner's work that are particularly interesting to them. While acknowledging the significance of Stirner's central arguments, especially in 'The Ego and His Own,' the speaker emphasizes that their discussion will not cover all aspects of Stirner's philosophy. Instead, this serves as a personalized introduction to the parts of Stirner's work they find intriguing.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Egoism according to Max Stirner The chapter discusses the concept of egoism as proposed by Max Stirner. It acknowledges that the original work is open to interpretation, suggesting that there might be differing views on Stirner's theories. The main focus is on Stirner’s version of egoism, and it begins by presenting the two broad types of egoism that are commonly discussed in standard discourses.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Psychological and Ethical Egoism Overview The chapter 'Psychological and Ethical Egoism Overview' explores two types of egoism: psychological and ethical. Psychological egoism is a descriptive theory suggesting that all human actions are motivated by self-interest, even when actions appear altruistic. It argues that when individuals perform acts that are seemingly selfless, such as donating to charity, they do so to gain some form of benefit.
• 01:30 - 02:30: Stirner's Unique Form of Egoism The chapter discusses Stirner's unique form of egoism. It elaborates on the concept that actions, such as giving money to charity, may be driven by personal interests like improving social status or self-satisfaction. Ethical egoism, as opposed to psychological egoism, is the view that individuals should act only in their self-interest and promote their own good. The chapter may reference other videos on the topic of ethical egoism.
• 02:30 - 04:00: Concept of Ownness and Self-mastery The chapter titled 'Concept of Ownness and Self-mastery' delves into the interpretations of egoism, particularly through the lens of Sterner's philosophy. It addresses the immediate challenge of categorizing Sterner's ideas into existing types of egoism. Specifically, it highlights that Sterner's form of egoism does not align with traditional categories, as he does not view humans as being solely motivated by self-interest. Instead, he acknowledges that the desire to promote the interests of others can also be fundamental to people. Furthermore, while engaging with the notion of ethical egoism, Sterner ultimately diverges from endorsing any specific moral doctrines. The chapter emphasizes this nuanced understanding of egoism while questioning traditional ethical frameworks.
• 04:00 - 05:30: Critique of Ordinary Egoism The chapter titled 'Critique of Ordinary Egoism' explores the philosophical stance of egoism, specifically focusing on the perspectives of Max Stirner. Stirner does not assert that individuals have a moral duty to maximize their own self-interest. Instead, he presents the egoist way of life as an exemplary form of character, advocating it not as a prescription for others but as a superior way of living. The chapter delves into the nuances of egoism, emphasizing its potential as a chosen path rather than an imposed moral obligation.
• 05:30 - 08:00: Reification and Its Role in Subjugation This chapter explores the concept of reification and its impact on subjugation. Reification is addressed through the lens of egoism, particularly looking into different ways of life and thought processes that might be founded on incorrect assumptions according to some thinkers, like Stirner. The dialogue distinguishes between psychological and ethical egoism and suggests that Stirner's viewpoint does not align strictly with these but represents a broader form of egoism. Egoism, often equated with selfishness or the sole pursuit of personal interests, is examined within the context of its philosophical interpretations and the misconceptions surrounding different worldviews.
• 08:00 - 10:30: Comparison of Freedom and Ownness This chapter explores the concept of 'ownness' in Stirner's philosophy, which revolves around self-mastery and individual autonomy. He emphasizes that true freedom is achieved when one is the master of oneself, not governed by external forces. The egoist, according to Stirner, acts solely for their own interests, embodying self-rule and authenticity.
• 10:30 - 13:00: Autonomy and Ownness The chapter "Autonomy and Ownness" delves into the concept of self-interest and self-mastery, highlighting a perspective that views all things, including people, as tools for personal use. It discusses the refusal to be subjugated to others' wills and the rejection of serving higher causes. The chapter includes examples of self-mastery, referencing the "Sternus Preface," where God is presented as the paradigmatic egoist, serving as a key figure illustrating this autonomy and self-ownership.
• 13:00 - 15:00: Conclusion and Summary The chapter reflects on the notion of God as the ultimate being who is not subordinate to anyone or anything. God is portrayed as the creator and owner of everything, exercising absolute authority. All beings and causes are considered subordinate to God, as everything emanates from Him. There is an emphasis on God's lack of any external or alien cause or concern, though it acknowledges that God is concerned with many things within Himself.

Max Stirner - Ownness Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hello youtube in this video and the next i'm going to take a look at max sterner now before i get into the material here i need to state an important caveat i'm focusing on the aspects of sterner's work that are of most interest to me but there's a lot of important material in the ego and his own material that's actually rather central to sterner's argument that i'm not really going to be covering so you should take this more as an introduction to what i find interesting within sterner rather than as an introduction to sterner in general
• 00:30 - 01:00 and also bear in mind i'm i'm talking about a translated work that was rather open to interpretation even in its original language so there may be reasonable disagreement about whether sterner really held all of the views i'm attributing to him um okay then with that said sterner is best known for proposing a kind of egoism and that's where we will begin in standard discussions of egoism two broad types of egoism are usually presented
• 01:00 - 01:30 there is descriptive or psychological egoism and there is normative or ethical egoism according to psychological egoism all people are in fact motivated only by self-interest even actions that seem on the surface as it were to be altruistic have purely self-interested motives psychological egoists will say that when somebody behaves in a way that is seemingly self-sacrificing such as giving money to charity they actually do it to gain some benefit
• 01:30 - 02:00 from it um giving money to charity you know improves my social status somehow makes me look good to others or maybe it just makes me feel good and that's why i'm doing it ethical egoism by contrast is the view that each person ought to do only what is in their self-interest you ought to act only for yourself you ought to promote only your own good so ethical egoism says we ought to be psychological egoists um i had a couple of videos on ethical
• 02:00 - 02:30 egoism that you may wish to check out so with this said we have an immediate problem because sterner's egoism doesn't really fit into either of these categories at least as i read him sterner does not suppose that people are motivated only by self-interest he accepts that people can have the promotion of the interests of others as a fundamental desire at the same time he isn't really an ethical egoist well certainly isn't an ethical egoist in the traditional sense as we'll see later he does not endorse any particular moral
• 02:30 - 03:00 obligations he would not claim that anybody has a moral duty to maximize their own self-interest now i think that the way to look at what sterner is doing and this is maybe a controversial way to look at it but i think the best way to look at it is that he's presenting a particular way of life the egoist way of life which he views as exhibiting a kind of excellence of character he's not interested in prescribing how other people ought to act but he does regard egoism as as superior not not
• 03:00 - 03:30 exactly morally superior but other ways of life other ways of thinking about the world are based on what he sees as mistaken presuppositions i think that's the way i would look at sterner's general take on this so yeah it's not exactly either psychological egoism or ethical egoism um but it is a kind of egoism now egoism is often defined as selfishness as the exclusive pursuit of
• 03:30 - 04:00 one's own desires sterner's egoism is a little more subtle than this the key aspect of sterner's egoism is what he calls onlyness it's difficult to give a precise definition of oneness but it's essentially a matter of self mastery self rule self determination authenticity individual autonomy as stoner puts it he says i am my own only when i am master of myself instead of being mastered by anything else so the egoist acts only for her own
• 04:00 - 04:30 sake she is concerned only for her own interest and she sees all things in the world including other people as tools that she can take for her own use she refuses to be subjugated to the will of others and she serves no higher cause some useful examples of self mastery are presented in the sternus preface sterner names god as the paradigmatic egoist god at least as he is
• 04:30 - 05:00 standardly conceived is a being that serves no higher person and no higher cause god is the creator of everything claims everything as his property and has authority over everything all other beings and all other causes are subordinated to god um indeed all of these things emanate from god so god has no cause that is alien to him no cause no concern outside himself now of course god is concerned with many things uh
• 05:00 - 05:30 truth love morality justice and so on but this is because on the standard view again god himself is truth love morality justice these things emanate from god and therefore belong to god as his own so god is his own master or consider for example nationalism stunner says a nation serves itself and expects its citizens to serve its cause it it serves itself and it uses its citizens as its property
• 05:30 - 06:00 um the nation will valorize those who fall in battle because they have served its cause um like god the nation uh demands the submission and allegiance of the individuals that it rules over so what these examples illustrate is that you are your own master you are an egoist when you recognize nothing as an authority over you and you are concerned with nothing but yourself you look upon the world and all the things in it simply as your property to do with as
• 06:00 - 06:30 you will you claim the world as your own all things are treated as a means to your end the egoist recognizes no constraints of duty or obligation there are no rules to which she would be willing to conform without benefit to herself and this is of course why we should not take stoner's egoism as a straightforward moral claim like standard ethical egoism if egoism were to amount to the claim that you ought to maximize your own self-interest
• 06:30 - 07:00 then it would just be another moral rule right but those who affirm their ownness simply act for themselves not for any moral rule now this uh rather obviously has some some quite radical consequences and it may be worth emphasizing just how radical sterner's view of onlineness is many of the institutions and activities of everyday life will turn out to be incompatible with oneness take for instance making promises when i make a promise sincerely i place
• 07:00 - 07:30 myself under an obligation to others so if you lend me some money and i promise to pay it back within a week i have obligated myself to pay it back within a week of course circumstances might arise that remove the obligation say if i'm injured or something you know have a car accident or maybe someone in my family is injured or i suddenly lose all my money somehow i'm burgled whatever but assuming normal circumstances we take it that that this obligation holds i take myself to be obligated to return your money to you um i take
• 07:30 - 08:00 i take myself to have your property and since it's your property i have to give it back now it might be supposed that there's nothing here that's incompatible with autonomy or self-mastery after all i can choose whether or not to make the promise if i'm entering into a contract voluntarily well my autonomy is preserved surely right like i mean you know i've i've chosen the obligation you know whenever
• 08:00 - 08:30 i whenever i enter into any kind of contract it's something that i have chosen to do so that doesn't violate my autonomy right well sterner rejects this to accept any binding obligation to view any rule whatsoever as a constraint on one's behavior is to allow oneself to be mastered by another person even if that other person is your past self the egoist recognizes no rules not even rules imposed upon herself according to sterner
• 08:30 - 09:00 to be bound by your own rules or to accept an obligation based on your past choices would be to allow a particular expression of your will to become your eternal commander why should i care now if i made a promise in the past the fact that i was a fool yesterday does not mean that i must be a fool today um now of course the egoist may well promise to do things and she may keep her promises she might have good reasons for doing
• 09:00 - 09:30 this but she will only do this when she judges that it's in her best interest she does not treat the act of promising as generating any genuine obligation so i guess the way to put it would be that an egoist can't make a sincere promise if she promises to do something she's kind of engaging in a deception she can't sincerely promise because a sincere promise would be to place ourselves under an obligation and eager is to recognize no obligations okay
• 09:30 - 10:00 we've seen that oneness is a matter of self mastery autonomy this is uh but you know part of this is a rejection of external authority but it's also important to emphasize that self-mastery can be threatened by your own desires also for this reason sterner is quite critical of what he calls egoists in the usual sense egoists in the usual sense ordinary egoists are sterner says selfish people looking out for their
• 10:00 - 10:30 advantage sober calculating basically selfishness um and he gives as examples the the avaricious man who is interested only in gathering wealth and in material treasures and uh the lover who disregards all other things and endures all manner of dangers in sole pursuit of affairs with women the trouble with ordinary egoism is that as sterner sees it it's also self-sacrificing people may sacrifice their autonomy for
• 10:30 - 11:00 petty reasons in addition to idealistic reasons so the political activist who allows herself to be martyred for a cause that's self-sacrifice with an idealistic motivation maybe she's motivated by love of her fellow man if she's a socialist say or maybe she's motivated by love of god if she's a christian theocrat or whatever either way you know this is an idealistic concern she's she's concerned with the world with other things with other people that's an idealistic motivation now if you consider the man who is
• 11:00 - 11:30 concerned only with material gain with acquiring a large house a fast car lots of material possessions to show off well the problem is that this man has subjugated himself to his appetites he's subjugated himself to what would be considered a you know petty motivation so as sterner puts it an avaricious man is not self-owned but a servant and he can do nothing for his own sake without at the same time doing it for his lord's sake precisely like the godly man
• 11:30 - 12:00 the avaricious man is a slave to his appetite for wealth he belongs to his appetites and he ends up sacrificing his other interests his personality he sacrifices himself in pursuit of this singular goal and it's just the same as how a political activist is a slave to her political cause or a slave to god um either way that this person is in a position in the condition of what sterner calls possessedness the person is possessed by an external force instead of being a
• 12:00 - 12:30 self-owner um the singular pursuit of wealth could not be the whole of one's ownness so the ordinary egoist simply acts on the basis of whatever her strongest inclinations are plus her capacities for pursuing those inclinations the sternerites egoist has in addition a kind of control over her own desires so that she's not enslaved to any of those desires um yeah she she has mastery over her
• 12:30 - 13:00 desire she does not allow herself to be mastered by them so egoism for sterner isn't simply selfishness in the traditional sense and it's important to distinguish it from that now of course having said all this it's also important to emphasize that the the sterneri egoist is not aspiring to achieve some higher moral ideal what's wrong with selfish avarice according to sterner is not that it violates the demands of morality or that it violates the commands of god
• 13:00 - 13:30 or anything like that it's the problem is simply that the individual has become possessed by uh by one of their desires um you know so one way to put all this is that the sternerite egoist resists subjugation uh both to the forces that are perceived as external such as society the state god morality and also to forces that are perceived as internal one's thoughts and desires the egoist will of course have desires ideas emotions concerns projects
• 13:30 - 14:00 she will not allow those projects to dominate her she will have a degree of detachment from them essentially she views all of these things not as kind of constraints that rule her behavior but as her own property to do with as she wishes so just as you look upon the world as your property you take the same attitude to your thoughts and feelings so that briefly stated is sterner's egoism at least as i understand it the stoneride egoist exhibits an extreme
• 14:00 - 14:30 individual autonomy and this is expressed in the idea of ownness now one of the key points about owners is that it is fundamentally an active choice you can choose to embrace ownness or you can choose to subjugate yourself indeed ultimately it's always the individual who subjugates themselves nobody can deprive me of self-mastery of ownness i can only do this to myself and one of the primary ways that this
• 14:30 - 15:00 occurs is through a kind of uh reification or projection of abstractions in this process uh concepts that arise from our thinking from our creative endeavors from our social interactions and so on are assigned an existence independent of us and are treated as external powers to which individuals must be subordinated god is of course a classic example of this um because there is no god but people act
• 15:00 - 15:30 as if this entity exists and as if it has authority over them uh it's also fairly obvious how this applies to something like morality right people come up with moral rules and then project them into the external world and treat them as uh as these external powers to which we must conform so we have concepts created by us that are projected into the world and treated as external authorities so as i say god and morality are kind of
• 15:30 - 16:00 obvious cases of this but sterner sees rarification occurring everywhere take for instance mankind now of course mankind exists right but mankind really is just a collection of individuals what happens is that people start to think of mankind as a whole as this as this sort of independent abstract entity with an essence of its own over and above individual men so in the first step of reification we distinguish the
• 16:00 - 16:30 essence of things from the appearances of things essences lie behind the appearances the essence of a thing is what is necessary and sufficient for being that thing certain properties are posited as being essential to man maybe rationality maybe love maybe morality maybe the desire for knowledge or whatever aristotle held that man is a rational animal that's the essential property of man for descartes the essence of man is the thinking mind cognition now of
• 16:30 - 17:00 course everybody recognizes that as men we have other properties so yes i i have a body for instance that's one of my that's one of my properties but the body is seen as merely an accidental property is merely an appearance it doesn't define what i essentially am so the first step of reification involves kind of valorizing certain properties of individual men and then dismissing other properties right you know you pick out certain properties as being the essential properties and
• 17:00 - 17:30 that gives you the concept of the ideal man um man as a whole and all individual men instantiate this so next the individual is treated as irrelevant except insofar as she exemplifies and serves the the ideal or abstraction since i am a man and i share essential properties with other men i have duties to man as a whole the essence of man is exalted and
• 17:30 - 18:00 placed above individual men man man the essence of man is treated it's so man is treated not merely as a collection of individuals with all kinds of different properties but as an ideal or norm that all individuals must serve and live up to i'm a man you're a man but man in the abstract is in this sense separate from any particular individual a nice illustration of this point is provided by sterner's discussion of the disagreement between a jew and a christian the jew and the christian he
• 18:00 - 18:30 says halfway exclude each other they exclude each other in so far as they serve different masters the jew enslaves himself to jehovah um actually i don't know i don't know what jews call their god but the jew enslaves himself to the jewish god the christian enslaves himself for the christian god both see themselves as men and as men they recognize each other and they take themselves not to be unique individuals but to share in the essential properties of men
• 18:30 - 19:00 and so as men they have duties to one another being a man is a kind of role with corresponding obligations if i see man the abstraction in you and i similarly see man the abstraction in myself the same abstraction in both of us then i will care for you as i would care for myself so by reifying man the individual becomes a servant of man just as the christian is a servant of the christian god or the jew is a servant of the jewish
• 19:00 - 19:30 god um indeed stoner is quite explicit that he sees man as a kind of secular god he says the human religion is only the last metamorphosis of the christian religion for liberalism is a religion because it separates my essence from me and sets it above me because it exalts man to the same extent as any other religion does it's god or idol later he says man is the god of today and fear of man has taken place of the old fear of god man is treated then as a as another
• 19:30 - 20:00 supreme being to which individuals are subjugated so in ramification the individual has some concept god man society humanity morality property whatever these are abstract concepts men exist but i have created the concept man by focusing on particular properties of men and treating them as essential so we have this abstract concept this concept is then seen not as something created by the individual but
• 20:00 - 20:30 as an external power to which the individual is subordinate i'm subordinate because of course i too am a man so you know i'm subordinate to this abstract ideal of man so i cease to treat my thoughts my ideas my values as my property as my creations but instead i treat them as my master rayification makes what is mine into something alien to me um and this process is of course encouraged throughout a
• 20:30 - 21:00 person's life by a variety of social institutions um it's often in the interests of authorities for individuals to subjugate themselves in this way but it's important to see that this is this is ultimately something that i'm doing right um it's not like other people can can do this to me ultimately it's it's this is on me as it were um i'm subjugating myself uh it's worth noting if you've read anything about sterner you've probably heard the term spook uh he criticizes a number of
• 21:00 - 21:30 things as spooks a spook is an idea or abstraction which is reified treated as though it were an external power and used to control the individual's behavior so spook in discussions of sterner refers to this process of raiification how then do we resist raiification well the egoist according to sterner takes herself to have no fixed identity the egoist is always becoming always transforming always
• 21:30 - 22:00 reinventing herself as the need arises in this sense the egoist is literally nothing she has no essential properties as stoner says i am the creative nothing the nothing out of which i as creator creates everything the egoist recognizes she has no essential properties no fixed identity instead she constitutes herself through her own activities by taking things in the world including her own body and her mind as her own manipulating them acting on
• 22:00 - 22:30 them but always treating them only as her belongings not as determining her identity um now of course you can't do just anything you want right stunner is not saying that people can can like just to do anything um the world imposes various obstacles and constraints upon us some of those obstacles may be shared with other people but there are always various ways to respond to any given obstacle so the obstacle can't be taken as
• 22:30 - 23:00 determining your identity for you so i am a man but this is only one of my qualities it's only an attribute of me i'm similarly an animal an englishman a philosopher and so on but we can't take any of my behaviors or attributes as determining my identity indeed any attempt to describe my identity will fail because i'm unique and always open to change right now in the process of writing this video i'm engaging in
• 23:00 - 23:30 reason rationality is currently at least one of my attributes aristotle took that to be an essential attribute man is a rational animal but i need not always be rational reason is something that we do it's a creation of our thinking so there's only your reason and my reason not human reason in the abstract in supposing that there are laws of reason or whatever and that it's the essential property of men that they conform to these laws we are projecting our creation into the external world
• 23:30 - 24:00 and treating it as an authority over us um so for the for the egoist yes i have many properties but none of these properties determine who i essentially am uh recall stunner's example of the jew and the christian they exclude each other halfway he says they say they serve different masters in their religions but they serve the same master insofar as they take themselves to be both essentially men egoists by contrast exclude each other holy they
• 24:00 - 24:30 do not share anything um they are both men only in so far as they both take manhood as their own they assert ownership over this attribute in themselves they are each unique and undefinable and each of them may respond to manhood and use their manhood in very different ways so that's not an essential property of them it's merely an attribute um okay so
• 24:30 - 25:00 so this is rarification as i say this is one of the central ways in which individuals subjugate themselves throughout his book sterner applies this framework in a critique of many of the foundational concepts of modern society humanism morality reason all of these are um are raiifications one of the most powerful critiques i think is devoted to freedom and it's during this discussion uh
• 25:00 - 25:30 sterner usefully contrasts freedom with ownness so um i think that this will give us uh not only an interesting critique of the concept of freedom but it will also help to explain exactly what oneness is supposed to be um so anyway it's quite natural to think of egoism and anarchism and similar views as promoting individual freedom right like a lot of anarchists will frame their positions in terms of freedom for the individual but sterner rejects this onlineness
• 25:30 - 26:00 is explicitly not a matter of freedom freedom is just another abstraction that has been rarified and used to subjugate individuals so one problem with freedom is that it is viewed as tied to particular institutional arrangements freedom is achieved only when the state is set up in such in such a way where people will have very different ideas about how it needs to be set up in order to achieve freedom nobody ever actually
• 26:00 - 26:30 desires freedom generally speaking rather there is always some particular kind of freedom that a personal movement might support and this freedom will bring with it a new type of domination by providing freedom in certain aspects of our lives we inevitably lose freedom in other ways thus the liberal for example wants to be free from the arbitrary hierarchies of aristocracy and wants to be free to use their property as they see fit but in achieving this she must impose a system of property rights
• 26:30 - 27:00 so you will not be free to for example take an apple from the orchard owned by another man so you have achieved freedom in a certain respect and lost freedom in another respect the socialist wants to be free from inequalities produced by liberal property rights and so imposes collectivism which again will reduce your freedom over your own things we'll discuss these points in much more detail in the next video but for now the important thing to
• 27:00 - 27:30 note is that people always aim for freedom in some particular respect there's always some particular kind of freedom that people want and and then what happens is that the the particular kind of freedom the particular conception of freedom is essentialized and is treated as defining freedom in general despite the existence of numerous political movements all with different ideas here so in pursuit of freedom people will reject particular constraints on their
• 27:30 - 28:00 behavior only to set up different constraints that are imposed upon all again the individual is subjugated to an abstraction to a particular ideal of freedom all social arrangements provide some freedoms while removing others this need not be particularly troubling my liberties are limited by all kinds of powers not just human powers the natural world also deprives me of freedoms in many ways freedom is always diminished in one way or another
• 28:00 - 28:30 freedom in general is not something that could ever be granted to you even in principle because the ability to do anything requires some limits on one's freedom in order for me to act in the world there must be things in the world that i take as my own and can use as tools but these things will impose constraints upon me um you know that that these things will impose like by existing in any kind of environment you're going to have limits
• 28:30 - 29:00 on you absolute freedom freedom from all external interference freedom from all external constraints that would be annihilation so freedom like absolute freedom is as sterna says empty of substance and it would clearly be absurd to have that as a goal so freedom is is a phantom um we should not ask whether we want freedom the question must be freedom from what freedom from
• 29:00 - 29:30 others interfering with your property as the liberal supposes or freedom from want freedom from poverty as the socialist supposes or something else the term freedom can be used sensibly to pick out any of these goals each of these will create new constraints on behavior but by viewing this by viewing any of these as achieving freedom in general the new forms of domination are ignored so i accept that freedom is always diminished in way or another i accept that social interaction will impose limits to
• 29:30 - 30:00 my freedom and i put up with these limits when it's to my benefit um this is just an inevitable result of interacting with other people and groups and things in the world that may be stronger than me ownness by contrast need not ever be diminished i need not accept any limit to my ownness i need not treat anything as an authority over myself another person might get in my way just as a rock might get in my way
• 30:00 - 30:30 but the other person need not be taken as an authority just as i do not treat the rock as an authority i look upon the person and the rock as tools or obstacles nothing more neither has my submission or my loyalty all ideals of freedom make freedom dependent on one's external circumstances sterner notes that the paradigmatic example of the unfree person is the slave somebody who is literally the legal property of another if i'm
• 30:30 - 31:00 enslaved i will lack many freedoms but stoner says i need not lack onlineness when the master hits me i still take it that it is my bones that moan my body is not free from torment but it is my body nothing anyone can do can change this i mean the master may have a legal right over my body but i still have autonomy over it it's it's ultimately still mine that i use um suppose the master were to literally cut
• 31:00 - 31:30 off my leg and take it away from me well what he's taken in that case is not really my leg but rather the corpse of a leg right like like once once that leg has been cut off i no longer have that sense of autonomy over it uh so he's he's not he doesn't he doesn't have mine he doesn't have my leg he just has a leg uh so it's this sense of autonomy this sense of self-possession that ultimately grounds
• 31:30 - 32:00 liberation ownness is the limit of other people's power and it's where the resistance to their power begins so the state of freedom is passive in the sense that it's just a matter of a lack of constraints imposed by external circumstances whereas ownness is active it involves an assertion of one's autonomy and a struggle against unwanted constraints as sterner puts it i am free from what i
• 32:00 - 32:30 am rid of owner of what i have in my power or what i control my own i am at all times and under all circumstances if i know how to have myself and do not throw myself away on others stoner is critical then of aiming for that which you desire to be conferred by some powerful other supposedly petition for freedom of speech what exactly is meant by this well we want the state to confer upon us a legal right to
• 32:30 - 33:00 express a certain range of things but even if we get the freedom we desire this presupposes that the state is the legitimate arbiter of what i may or may not express the legal right to freedom of speech granted by the state is a mere permission granted by the state the relationship of master to subject the autonomy the authority of the state over the individual remains the same and of course the you know the permission that is granted may be withdrawn at any time at the whim of the state um as in fact you know many countries
• 33:00 - 33:30 that have affirmed freedom of speech have later revoked it in various ways since freedom is something dependent on the activities of others or it's you know it's a permission granted by others it must be provided by those others so it's alienated from the individual to aim for a condition of freedom therefore involves subjugating yourself to the will of those others it's dependent on what those others do whereas ownness is is not right ownness is an assertion of your
• 33:30 - 34:00 power um of your capacity now having said all this sterner does recognize that there is something important and significant in all of the talk about freedom right like the desire for freedom is um is it is something is important um but he suggests that really the desire for freedom comes from from our desire to remove constraints we want to control ourselves and the world around us and why do we want this well stoner says that what we really
• 34:00 - 34:30 want here is not the freedom to do x or to have x such as the freedom to drink wine what we really want is x itself x is something i can acquire and enjoy that i can take as my property right so the freedom to drink wine right what i really want is drink to drink wine right the wine is something that i can actually have as my own freedom is worthless to me if it does not bring me the things that i
• 34:30 - 35:00 want and conversely if i have the things that i want it really doesn't matter to me whether i'm free to have them right um the the freedom to have x or to do x is a mere useless permission granted to me by a foreign entity what matters in practice is how i use the freedoms that i'm granted or how i act against the constraints that are imposed and that depends on me it depends on my ownness those who affirm their ownness who are concerned
• 35:00 - 35:30 only with themselves will simply take the things that they want at least when they're able to do so they're not going to be concerned about whether whether or not they're free to do so uh they make the world into their property they make the world into a tool for them to use to their own ends online is not dependent on one's circumstances ownness is not a matter of a lack of constraint it's not a permission to do something that might be bequeathed to us by the state or by anybody else
• 35:30 - 36:00 ownness is an expression of my power i can assert myself and assert my possession of things regardless of external constraints ownness is not an indeterminate ideal or abstraction like freedom is but it's an active act of possession of thoughts objects values as my own and a refusal to recognize any authority over me now it's important to note that sterner is not arguing that we should replace
• 36:00 - 36:30 one goal with another he's not arguing that we should replace the goal of freedom with the goal of ownness uh ownness is more uh descriptive than normative i you know i am my own when i recognize nothing is an authority over me when i take myself and the world as being mine um and then the the point is that like yes freedom matters but the recov the required kinds of freedom are just determined by the individual so if some kind of constraint is not inconvenient to me then i will not want
• 36:30 - 37:00 to be rid of it and i may even take some pleasure in it as when i give up some freedoms in order to have fulfilling relationships with others you gladly let freedom go when unfreedom suits you as sterner says and only i can decide what kinds of freedom matter to me not the state not political movements such as liberalism or socialism so my you know that i guess one way to think of it is that my freedoms flow from my ownness
• 37:00 - 37:30 okay well let's summarize then uh there are three important features of of ownness as i see it at least that comprise sterner's egoism first oneness is of absolute value the egoist does not accept any trade-off between owners and and other things um she does not accept any sacrifice of individual autonomy
• 37:30 - 38:00 second oneness is totally incompatible with subjugation to the will of others now this is this is an important point because on many accounts of autonomy an autonomous person can subjugate themselves legitimately such as by making a promise or consenting to a particular government consider for instance the social contract theories of the state where the legitimacy of the state rests on the consent of the governed we can legitimately impose binding constraints on ourselves without
• 38:00 - 38:30 violating autonomy it's just as long as we you know as long as we consent as long as we do it voluntarily sterner's egoism rejects all subjugation even self-imposed there are no binding obligations period third no other person can grant you ownness and no other person can deprive you of oneness you must make the active choice either to affirm your ownness or to subjugate yourself so i guess before you know ending it might be worth
• 38:30 - 39:00 comparing sterner's egoism to the egoism of someone like ayn rand in randy and egoism the individual is subjugated to certain moral and rational constraints rand affirms objective morality libertarian property rights objective reason rand things for example that we can learn by the application of reason that it would be immoral for me to steal your property should i desire it because this would be to force you to sacrifice yourself for my benefit
• 39:00 - 39:30 rand expects individuals to be subordinated to her ideal to act in accordance with morality and reason as she conceives of them from sterner's perspective rand should probably be seen more as an anti-altruist than an egoist the the moral individual on rand's view doesn't sacrifice himself for others nor sacrifices others for himself but
• 39:30 - 40:00 sterner would no doubt object at this point the individual is being sacrificed to a variety of raiified concepts of reason morality property rights and this really amounts to an indirect sacrifice to others insofar as these concepts are of course merely human creations um rand may well take selfishness in the standard sense to be a virtue but she certainly doesn't take ownness to be a virtue so when we attribute egoism to
• 40:00 - 40:30 sterner it's important to see that this is quite different from egoism as it is standardly conceived and egoism as it has been conceived in um other parts of other areas of the literature um okay i'm going to end this video here i'll shortly be uploading a second video in which we will connect all of this more explicitly to political philosophy and examine stern's status as an anarchist but that is all for now thanks for
• 40:30 - 41:00 watching