Karl Marx and Max Stirner

Abstract

EW PERSONS FAMILIAR with the writings of Marx would deny the importance of The Gernan Ideology; yet its belated publication and translation has long had the effect of obscuring most of its contents.! It has rarely been read in its entirety; the long section Marx devoted to a phrase-by-phrase dissection of Stirner's Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum, in particular, has been almost completely ignored.2 Because Roy Pascal's translation of The German Ideology omitted Marx's attack on Stirner, even though this section (Sankt Max) comprises fully threequarters of the book Marx wrote, the erroneous belief seems to have grown up, even among Marxologists, that Sankt Max is irrelevant or unimportant. This belief is not supported by an examination of its text. Sankt Max is anything but peripheral to the argument of the rest of The German Ideology, a work whose most important themes are fully developed only in Sankt Max. Without an understanding of Stirner, the significance of The Gernan Ideology cannot be fully grasped. Most commentators, regarding Stirner as unworthy of attention, have failed to notice that the Left-Hegelians themselves had a far higher opinion of him.3 Marx, for his part, considered Stirner's book to be the consummation of Young-Hegelian thought, embodying and exemplifying its worst features to the point of caricature. It is surprising, therefore, that Sankt Max has been subjected to no critical analysis, when it is known to be the longest