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This book is a historical study on the political thoughts of William Godwin, Max Stirner, and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, three thinkers who are usually positioned in the early history of anarchist thought. The thought and movement generally referred to as anarchism was formed in the late 19th century by Bakunin and others in opposition to Marxism. The later-developed concept of anarchism was retroactively applied to the three thinkers above, giving them the status of pioneers of anarchism. That said, unlike those who came after Bakunin, these three rarely called themselves anarchists and never promoted anarchist thoughts or fomented anarchist movements. This book questions the conventional history of anarchist thought and seeks to reexamine these thinkers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries from a perspective other than that of pioneers of anarchism, which developed later.
 
Each of these three was a highly independent thinker coming from a distinct background and having little mutual interaction: Godwin was a non-conformist minister, Stirner a Left Hegelian, and Proudhon a labor advocate for artisans. These thinkers were, in many ways, connected to the historical tradition of political thoughts of the 18th century and earlier, including the philosophy of the European Enlightenment and republicanism. They represent a somewhat heretical branch of political thought just before the 19th century, which was steeped in nationalism and scientism. They also share the common characteristic of being critical of the French Revolution, especially Jacobinism, which, while inheriting the idea of equality, ultimately ended in dictatorship.
 
When considering the current political situation, we see that there is a marked decline in trust in the state and political systems, which has resulted in renewed interest in anarchism in some quarters. However, due to changes in social structure and consciousness, a return to anarchist ideology in the sense that the term was used from the late 19th to the 20th century is not realistic. On the other hand, the thoughts of the three thinkers discussed in this book contain various elements that were forgotten in later anarchist ideology but may provide useful insight into contemporary issues. Examples of such elements include an objective conception of justice that cannot be reduced to human will, a position that rejects communism while criticizing private ownership, and the importance of mutualism as the basis of society.
 
The aim of the book is to place the so-called early anarchist thought described above in the context of the history of political thought and to uncover elements of anarchism that are obscured in the conventional history of anarchism. Although anarchism has generally been understood as belonging to leftist and socialist schools of thought, given that present day libertarianism and anarcho-capitalism, which are usually positioned on the right, are also understood to have anarchist characteristics, we find ourselves needing to reorganize and recombine the concept of anarchism. This book is a modest historical study, but we hope that it can provide insights that will be useful in addressing contemporary needs.
 

(Written by MORI Masatoshi, Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences / 2023)