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Philosophical anarchism is an anarchist school of thought which focuses on intellectual criticism of authority, especially political power, and the legitimacy of governments.[1][2][3] The American anarchist and socialist Benjamin Tucker coined the term philosophical anarchism to distinguish peaceful evolutionary anarchism from revolutionary variants.[4] Although philosophical anarchism does not necessarily imply any action or desire for the elimination of authority, philosophical anarchists do not believe that they have an obligation or duty to obey any authority or conversely that the state or any individual has a right to command. Philosophical anarchism is a component especially of individualist anarchism.[5]
The 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, which is 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 Wordsworth Donisthorpe, who foresee in this sense "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,[6] having such followers as the American individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker[7] and the green anarchist Henry David Thoreau.[8]
- ^ Wayne Gabardi, review Archived 2017-06-11 at the Wayback Machine of Anarchism by David Miller, published in American Political Science Review Vol. 80, No. 1. (Mar. 1986), pp. 300–302.
- ^ Rex Martin (April 1974). "Wolff's Defence of Philosophical Anarchism". The Philosophical Quarterly. 24 (95): 140–149. doi:10.2307/2217718. JSTOR 2217718. Archived from the original on 2023-08-05. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
- ^ Simmons, A. John (16 February 2009). "Philosophical Anarchism". Search eLibrary. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1344425. SSRN 1344425. Archived from the original on 13 June 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
- ^ Antliff, Allan. 2001. Anarchist Modernism: Art, Politics, and the First American Avant-Garde. University of Chicago Press. p. 4.
- ^ Outhwaite, William & Tourain, Alain (Eds.). (2003). "Anarchism." The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought (2nd Edition, p. 12). Blackwell Publishing.
- ^ Freeden, Michael. Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-829414-X. pp. 313–314.
- ^ Tucker, Benjamin R., Instead of a Book, by a Man too Busy to Write One: A Fragmentary Exposition of Philosophical Anarchism (1897, New York).
- ^ Broderick, John C. "Thoreau's Proposals for Legislation." American Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Autumn, 1955). p. 285.