The Ego and Its Own
Scholar Lawrence Stepelevich argues that Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a major influence on "The Ego and Its Own". While the latter has an "un-Hegelian structure and tone" on the whole and is hostile to Hegel's conclusions about the self and the world, Stepelevich argues that Stirner's work is best understood as answering Hegel's question of the role of consciousness after it has contemplated "untrue knowledge" and become "absolute knowledge". Stirner, Stepelevich concludes, presents the consequences of the rediscovering one's self-consciousness after realizing self-determination.