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Anarchy, Understood in All its Senses—II

December 17, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur

[Continued from Part I.] “The first term of the series being thus Absolutism, the final, fateful term is Anarchy, understood in all the senses.”–Proudhon, The General Idea of the Revolution In 1840, Proudhon declared […]

Principles of the Philosophy of Progress (IV and V)

November 17, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur

IV.—OF COMPLEX COLLECTIVE ACTION. Everyone has read, in A. Smith, J.-B. Say, and others, the marvelous results of that force; but what few people have noticed, no doubt, is the technical inexactitude with which these […]

Reading “The Third Social Form” — I

August 12, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] We have a lot of issues on our plate, but for now let’s stick to the reading of the passage from What is Property? The first […]

Another look at Proudhon (and an invitation to experiment)

August 6, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] It is a well-known fact of anarchist history (a term that we’ll be giving some special attention in the coming months) that even the founding figures […]

Bakunin to Karl Marx, December 22, 1868

August 5, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur

December 22, 1868. Geneva 123. Montbrillant. My old friend – Serno has shared with me the part of your letter that concerned me. You asked him if I continue to be your friend. – Yes, […]

Principles of the Philosophy of Progress (II and III)

July 21, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur

II.—THE FORCE IN THE SOCIAL BEING. 1.—There exists between men a tendency or attraction that pushes them to group and act, for their own great interest and the most complete development of their individuality, collectively […]

The Conditions of Existence (from “Economy”)

July 19, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur

[Ms. 2867 contains a section on the “Principles of the Philosophy of Progress,” which focuses on the character of collective beings and collective reason. It opens with the following notes on the “conditions of existence:”] […]

In Search of the Justicier

July 18, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur

I don’t want to wait to work through the details of Proudhon’s analysis before moving forward with the neo-Proudhonian analysis I’ve been developing. At the moment, in fact, I think that the two projects can […]

My Testament, or Society of Avengers

July 16, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve uploaded a partial transcription and translation of “My Testament, or Society of Avengers,” and posted some commentary at the Contr’un Blog.

Note on the intitiation into justice

July 15, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur

“It is through marriage that man learns, from nature itself, to sense himself as double.” A point that I probably haven’t explored sufficiently, in the course of working through Proudhon’s thoughts on the family, is […]