Month: April 2016

Proudhon Library

A new Proudhon Library: looking forward

April 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
There are some discussions going on about perhaps attempting a Proudhon Library comparable to the Bakunin Library publishing project currently underway. It has taken four years to move from the decision to publish the Bakunin works to the point where we are now, with two volumes nearing completion and a fairly clear plan for the rest. Given the much greater extent and complexity of Proudhon’s work, the planning stage is likely to be at least as lengthy. But there are other difficulties as well. There is more than a bit of resistance to be overcome if we’re going to have […]
Bakunin Library

Bakunin and Proudhon / Authority and Anarchy

April 25, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[ezcol_2third] If (in the passage from God and the State discussed in the last post) Bakunin has not simply changed the meaning of the word “authority” from one paragraph to the next, as he moves from his general critique to his consideration of “the authority of the bootmaker,” then we presumably have a case in which authority must indeed be rejected when considered in general, but cannot be spurned or simply pushed away (repoussé) in the messy realm of practice, where the limits of our knowledge and the limitations of our animality confront us on a regular basis. We find […]
Contr'un

Bakunin and Proudhon / Authority and Anarchy

April 20, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
If (in the passage from God and the State discussed in the last post) Bakunin has not simply changed the meaning of the word “authority” from one paragraph to the next, as he moves from his general critique to his consideration of “the authority of the bootmaker,” then we presumably have a case in which authority must indeed be rejected when considered in general, but cannot be spurned or simply pushed away (repoussé) in the messy realm of practice, where the limits of our knowledge and the limitations of our animality confront us on a regular basis. We find ourselves […]
Bakunin Library

The “authority” of the bootmaker

April 15, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’ve remarked elsewhere on the curious phenomenon of self-proclaimed anarchists who are much more comfortable with the language of governmentalism and authority than they are with the concept of anarchy. It is curious, but it is far from inexplicable. After all, some of the most famous pioneers of anarchist thought muddied those waters rather enthusiastically at times. Over the years, I have spent quite a bit of time working through Proudhon’s complicated engagements with property, the State, anarchy and other terms. There are potentially cautionary tales there regarding just about any strategy we might take with these complex and contested […]
Bakunin Library

Library update: April 2016

April 14, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] [June update: See the posts on “Strategies of Interpretation” and “Strategies of Presentation” for some additional information on the edition.] The hardest thing about assembling an edition like the Bakunin Library is knowing when you can safely stop planning and exploring, and finally settle down to the work itself. Ideally, it would have been wonderful to take ten years to work through everything and then prepare the reader as a summary volume. But it’s been necessary to be realistic about where the English-speaking community is with respect to Bakunin and about […]
Bakunin Library

Letter to Albert Richard (April 1, 1870)

April 12, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
April 1, 1870. Geneva. Dear friend. I still find myself here and every day await news of the arrival of the relation that you know, in order to go to meet them. Complete reaction in the International of Geneva.—The factory [fabrique] has triumphed on all fronts in my absence, and no one has been found to halt that triumph. L’Egalité has become a reactionary paper. Here is the program: Cooperation and the local politics of bourgeois radicalism. From now on the International of Geneva will no longer be anything but a stepping-stone to bring the Perrets and Grosselins to power. […]
Proudhon Library

Notes on “La Pornocratie”

April 8, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
The manuscript carries the “Nouvelles de la Révolution” header, like the sections in the expanded “Justice,” and we know that Proudhon intended it as a follow-up to the studies on “Love and Marriage.” In a letter to Garnier Frères, December 12, 1860, Proudhon wrote: “At this moment I am studying our young literature. I have read, for example, all the novels of Mr. [Edmonde] About: you can be sure that I do not intend to have wasted my time. But I cannot thus leap from one order of ideas to another without transition; and the transitions for me are in […]
Contr'un

The “authority” of the bootmaker

April 4, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’ve remarked elsewhere on the curious phenomenon of self-proclaimed anarchists who are much more comfortable with the language of governmentalism and authority than they are with the concept of anarchy. It is curious, but it is far from inexplicable. After all, some of the most famous pioneers of anarchist thought muddied those waters rather enthusiastically at times. Over the years, I have spent quite a bit of time working through Proudhon’s complicated engagements with property, the State, anarchy and other terms. There are potentially cautionary tales there regarding just about any strategy we might take with these complex and contested […]