Anarchism as a Rejection of Bourgeois Individualism: An Examination of the Concepts of Property and Morality in the Writings of Kropotkin, Tucker, and Stirner

Abstract

<p>This work seeks to demonstrate, through an examination of the writings of Peter A. Kropotkin and Benjamin R. Tucker, that the communist and individualist schools of anarchist theory differ less in spirit and in underlying commitment than in their prescriptive measures; that each entails a fundamental break with liberalism over the notion of equality and ultimately finds itself more consistently in the socialist than anarchist tradition in political thought. Anarchism entails more truly a rejection than a projection of bourgeois individualism.<br />Moreover, it will be argued that the one exception to this is Max Stirner--a man who shared the anarchists' disdain for bourgeois social arrangements while adhering to the bourgeois notion of man. His vision is one of chaos not 'anarchy'.</p>