Variations
Philosophical anarchists may accept the existence of a minimal state as an unfortunate, and usually temporary, "necessary evil" but argue that citizens do not have a moral obligation to obey the state when its laws conflict with individual autonomy. As conceived by William Godwin, it requires individuals to act in accordance with their own judgments and to allow every other individual the same liberty; conceived egoistically as by Max Stirner, it implies that 'the unique one' who truly 'owns himself' recognizes no duties to others; within the limit of his might, he does what is right for him.
Rather than taking up arms to bring down the state, philosophical anarchists "have worked for a gradual change to free the individual from what they thought were the oppressive laws and social constraints of the modern state and allow all individuals to become self-determining and value-creating." They may oppose the immediate elimination of the state by violent means out of concern that what remained might be vulnerable to the establishment of a yet more harmful and oppressive state. This is especially true among those anarchists who consider violence and the state as synonymous, or who consider it counterproductive where public reaction to violence results in increased "law enforcement" efforts.
Many traditional conservatives identify themselves as "anarchists" on account of their opposition to state control, yet they support the ordering by rank of social groups such as families, churches, corporations, clubs, and even countries. J. R. R. Tolkien, for instance, once wrote that his political views "lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs)—or to 'unconstitutional' Monarchy." For this reason, Brian Patrick Mitchell proposes that such conservatives be called akratists instead of anarchists because they accept the "archy" of social rank and only oppose the "kratos" of state control, in contrast to individualist anarchists, who reject both social "archy" and political "kratos."
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