Part 6/11:
Central to Stirner's critique is the assertion that many sociocultural principles and values are merely transitory, shaping but not defining human existence. He argues that clinging to ideals results in a form of alienation, where people fail to recognize their agency in favor of external moral authority. Drawing from other contemporaneous critiques, such as those from socialist thinkers and Hegel's dialectics, Stirner's work posits that values are, in effect, constructs that people have endowed with power merely through collective acceptance.