The Adjective ‘Adjective-less’, Part I:

4 Senses of Anarchism

I had a teacher for every class — no matter how advanced — I took with him, the first lecture would be the same. The first semester I had with him, I had two of his classes back-to-back — meaning I had the same lecture back-to-back!

For some, that might sound boring, but for me it was fascinating!

The Professor would write a word on the board. The word was whatever the subject of the class was — logic, philosophy, ethics — and would go through four¹ different ‘senses’ of the word.

The senses of the word always go in the same order, and for ‘Part I’ of The Adjective ‘Adjective-less’, I hope to do my own take on that lecture² but with the word ‘anarchism’.

This is by no means a comprehensive list — see Footnote 1 of ‘Part I’ — but the hope is that for ‘Part I’ I’ll be able to use this list as a framework to talk about the subject of archism.

‘Sense 1’: Personal Sense of Anarchism

Definition of Sense 1: Any single person’s beliefs and presuppositions³ on what constitutes justified power and what constitutes unjustified power.

Example A of Sense 1: “Your anarchism is not my anarchism!”

Example B of Sense 1: “Is your anarchism informed by your experience as a queer person?”

‘Sense 2’: Collective Sense of Anarchism

Definition of Sense 2: The dominant beliefs or presuppositions of any group, any community, or any organization on what constitutes justified power and what constitutes unjustified power.

Example A of Sense 2: “CrimethInc’s anarchism isn’t that bad guys!”

Example B of Sense 2: “Why does Anarchist twitter keep making fun of me for liking CrimethInc.’s anarchism unironically?”

‘Sense 3’: Institutional Sense of Anarchism

Definition of Sense 3: Any theory, school of thought, or tendency which is connected by its shared approach in how it understands what constitutes justified power and what constitutes unjustified power.

Example A of Sense 3: “Anarcho-Primitivism is not lame!”

Example B of Sense 3: “Isn’t Chomskyan⁴ anarchism just anarcho-syndicalism for pretentious people?”

‘Sense 4’: Sense of Anarchism as a Branch of Inquiry

Definition of Sense 4: The study of what constitutes justified power and what constitutes unjustified power and the body of ideas and knowledge which that study has produced.⁵

Example A of Sense 4: “Anarchism is not an exact science!”

Example B of Sense 4: “Can we stop talking about anarchism now?”