NATUEE OP ETHICAL CODES 485 



clearly implies the subordination of the personaHty of the 

 individual to an exterior power. The moral imperative, if it 

 be obeyed, clearly impHes that the individual recognises some- 

 thing higher than his own individual instincts and tendencies ; for 

 otherwise why should he seek to hold these instincts in check ? 

 And the great service which Max Stimer, a philosopher unfortu- 

 nately unknown in England, has rendered to philosophy, is that 

 he pitilessly pointed out the real nature of the moral law, which 

 consists in a subordination of the individual to an exterior power ; 

 and it was precisely for this reason that Stimer rejected all moral 

 law. The result he arrived at, the preaching of an unbounded 

 and ferocious Egoism, which is the negation of every ideal other 

 than that of the individual, is entirely logical. ^ Hartmann has 

 rightly said that Stirner's book is valuable, in that it depicts the 

 logical consequences which follow, not only from the doctrine of 

 unlimi ted economic competition, but also from every ethical 

 system which seeks to base an ethical code on non-metaphysical 

 principles. 



Every ethical code imphes the same fundamental principle of 

 the subordination of the individual ; whether the obedience of 

 the individual to certain moral precepts be required in the 

 name of the moral law, or of society, or of religion, or anything 

 else, the principle remains identical. The individual is required 

 to subordinate his own personality, his own instincts, his own 

 tendencies, to an entity which is exterior to and higher than 

 the individual. This is so obvious that we need not discuss it 

 any further ; and this fact being granted, it only remains to be 

 seen whether it is more efficacious to require the subordination 

 of the individual in the name of a rational or of a supra-rational 

 principle. 



We do not see how the argument of Hartmann can be done 

 away with. We are unable to see any vahd reason why man, 



* Max Stimer, Der Einzige und sein Eigentum (Berlin, 1843). J. F. 

 Mackay, Max Stimer, sein Leben, sein Werk (Berlin, 1898). 



