Month: May 2010

Contr'un

A freethought gem from Multatuli

May 30, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
Though personally I am (notoriously, in some circles) a radical neo-christian, a “regular thoroughgoing heretic” much on the same model as William B. Greene, I’m a equal-opportunity historian and translator, and certainly enjoy a well-written freethought piece. After all, the institutions of Christendom seem to have trouble keeping their own basic doctrines straight, and pretty much beg for a good rebuttal. This short piece by Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker, 1820-1887) is a translation of a French translation of a posthumously published letter, but I think the sense comes through loud and clear. THE PRAYER OF AN IGNORAMUS MULTATULI. I don’t […]
Working Translations

Joseph Leroux, “Your Nationalities” (1892)

May 30, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
[ezcol_2third] [Here is one of three essays from a pamphlet on nationalism, by Pierre Leroux’s son, Joseph.] DOCTRINE OF HUMANITY YOUR NATIONALITIES   Extract from a letter published in the the arbitrator, a journal of the friends of peace, appearing in London under the direction of W[illiam] R[andall] Cremer, chevalier of the Legion of Honor, member of the English Parliament.   My dear Cremer, It is always with the most lively interest that I follow the efforts made to give a solution to the problem of peace. I see that at Rome, at the Inter-Parliamentary Congress, one has thrown at […]
Contr'un

Proudhon on Property (1846) – Part 5

May 20, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE SYSTEM OF ECONOMIC CONTRADICTIONS CHAPTER XI EIGHTH EPOCH.—PROPERTY [continued from Part 4] Thus property, which should consummate the holy union of man and nature, leads only to an odious prostitution. The sultan uses and abuses his slave: the earth is for him an instrument of luxury… I find here more than a metaphor; I discover a profound analogy. What is it that, in the relations of the sexes, distinguishes marriage from concubinage? Everyone senses the difference between these two things; few people would be in a state to render an account of it, so obscure has the question become […]
Contr'un

Proudhon on Property (1846) – Part 4

May 20, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE SYSTEM OF ECONOMIC CONTRADICTIONS CHAPTER XI EIGHTH EPOCH.—PROPERTY [continued from Part 3]   Of all the forms of property, the most detestable is that which has talent for a pretext. Prove to an artist, by the comparison of times and men, that the inequality of works of art, in the different centuries, above all stems from the oscillating movements of society, from the changing of beliefs and of the state of minds; that whatever a society is worth, so much is the worth of the artist; that between the artist and his contemporaries there exists a community of needs […]
Contr'un

Proudhon on Property (1846) – Part 3

May 20, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE SYSTEM OF ECONOMIC CONTRADICTIONS CHAPTER XI EIGHTH EPOCH.—PROPERTY   [continued from Part 2] § III. — How property is corrupted. By means of property, society has realized a thought that is useful, laudable, and even inevitable: I am going to prove that by obeying an invincible necessity, it has cast itself into an impossible hypothesis. I believe that I have not forgotten or diminished any of the motives which have presided over the establishment of property; I even dare say that I have given these motives a unity and an obviousness unknown until this moment. Let the reader fill […]
Contr'un

Proudhon on Property (1846) – Part 2

May 19, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE SYSTEM OF ECONOMIC CONTRADICTIONS CHAPTER XI EIGHTH EPOCH.—PROPERTY [continued from Part 1] I The organization of common sense presupposes the solution of another problem, the problem of certainty, which divides into two correlative species, certainty of subject and certainty of object. In other words, before searching for the laws of thought, one must assure oneself of the reality of the being that thinks as well as that of the being that is thought, without which one runs the risk of researching the laws of nothing. The first moment of that great polemic is thus that in which the self […]
collectivism

Summary of Social Economy – I

May 19, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
Here’s the first section of a text introducing the ideas of Jean-Guillaume-César-Alexandre-Hippolyte baron de Colins, the chief theorist of “rational socialism,” also known as “collectivism.” Although Colins and his school are now largely forgotten, they were an important influence in the period of the First International. Indeed, in the early debates between mutualism and collectivism, the influence of Colins’ collectivism was probably as significant as that of Marx. This first section is largely biographical. Summary of Social Economy According to the Ideas of Colins  Agathon de Potter I composed, a long time ago, an extremely brief summary of the social […]
Contr'un

Proudhon on Property (1846) – Part 1

May 15, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE SYSTEM OF ECONOMIC CONTRADICTIONS CHAPTER XI EIGHTH EPOCH.—PROPERTY 1.—Property is inexplicable apart from the economic series.—Of the organization of common sense, or problem of certainty. The problem of property is, after that of human destiny, the greatest that reason can propose, and the last that it will be able to resolve. Indeed, the theological problem, the enigma of religion, has been explicated; the philosophical problem, which treats the value and legitimacy of knowledge, is resolved: there remains the social problem, which simply joins these two, and the solution of which, as everyone believes, comes essentially from property. I will […]
Contr'un

On Enewetak (from The Distributive Passions)

May 15, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
This immediately follows the section I posted May 2. It originally appeared on the defunct Distributive Passions blog. Bradford Peck was the author of The World A Department Store, and prime mover, along with the Vroomans, in the cooperative movement in New England. Much of this has already taken another shape in the rewriting, but I was reminded of this version by Charles Johnson’s comments on the different ways of envisioning markets. The contrasting visions have certainly been around for a long time… The Canteen It’s more like a swap meet than a food stand or restaurant, with a menu […]