Proudhon Library

French texts

Fifth study—L’Education—Parallel French

April 8, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
CINQUIÈME ÉTUDE DE L’ÉDUCATION À Son Éminence Mgr Matthieu, Cardinal-Archevêque de Besançon. I Monseigneur, Napoléon Ier dit dans ses mémoires : « Mon enfance n’eut rien de remarquable ; je n’étais qu’un enfant curieux et obstiné. » C’est justement ce que l’on peut dire de la plupart des enfants du peuple. Je m’étais toujours flatté, sous ce rapport, d’être au niveau de la multitude et du grand homme, et ne m’attendais pas que, sous l’inspiration de mon archevêque, un entrepreneur de biographies viendrait chercher dans l’insignifiance de mes premières années les symptômes de ce que, trente ans plus tard, en suivant obstinément le sillon […]
French texts

Fourth study—L’Etat—Parallel French

March 29, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
QUATRIÈME ÉTUDE L’ÉTAT   CHAPITRE PREMIER. Phénomène de l’instabilité des gouvernements. Antipathie de la conscience humaine pour le pouvoir. — Position du problème politique.   I ESSAIS D’UNE PHILOSOPHIE POPULAIRE. — N° 4. DE LA JUSTICE DANS LA RÉVOLUTION ET DANS L’ÉGLISE. —— QUATRIÈME ÉTUDE. L’ÉTAT. CHAPITRE PREMIER. Phénomène de l’instabilité des états. — Antipathie de la conscience humaine pour le gouvernement. — Origine du droit divin et de son équivalent, la souveraineté du peuple. — Exemple de la nation française. — Position du problème politique. Monseigneur, L’homme qui possède la foi est vraiment heureux : il ne doute de rien ; […]
Proudhon Library

P.-J. Proudhon, “Solution of the Social Problem”

March 25, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Republic is the organization by which, all opinions and all activities remaining free, the People, by the very divergence of opinions and will, think and act as a single man. In the Republic, every citizen, by doing what they want and nothing but what they want, participates directly in the legislation and in the government, as they participate in the production and circulation of wealth. There, every citizen is king; for he has the fullness of power; he reigns and governs. The Republic is a positive anarchy. It is neither liberty subjected to order, as in the constitutional monarchy, nor liberty imprisoned in order, as the Provisional Government intends. It is liberty delivered from all its shackles: superstition, prejudice, sophistry, stock-jobbing, authority. It is reciprocal liberty, and not the liberty which restricts; liberty, not the daughter of order, but the mother of order.

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New Proudhon Library

Second Study—Persons—Parallel English

February 28, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
[These draft translations are part of on ongoing effort to translate both editions of Proudhon’s Justice in the Revolution and in the Church into English, together with some related works, as the first step toward establishing an edition of Proudhon’s works in English. They are very much a first step, as there are lots of decisions about how best to render the texts which can only be answered in the course of the translation process. It seems important to share the work as it is completed, even in rough form, but the drafts are not suitable for scholarly work or […]
Proudhon Library

Second Study—Personnes—Parallel French

December 6, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur
— Formatting in progress — 1858 1860 ESSAIS D’UNE PHILOSOPHIE POPULAIRE. — NO. 2 DEUXIÈME ÉTUDE LES PERSONNES CHAPITRE PREMIER. Principe de la dignité personnelle. Monseigneur, Puisque c’est à l’occasion d’un fait personnel que j’ai conçu l’idée de mon livre, permettez-moi d’abord de revenir sur ce fait, auquel vous n’êtes pas étranger, et de vous poser une question. Le particulier, dit la logique, reproduit le général ; le fait est nécessairement l’expression de l’idée. En partant d’un fait, nous n’arriverons que mieux à la loi, tandis que le contraire serait impossible. Telle n’est pas, j’en conviens, la méthode des révélateurs ; mais […]
Contr'un

Notes on the Development of Proudhon’s Thought

October 4, 2021 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related links: These notes will obviously be of most use to those who have followed previous discussions of the individual texts, but it represents what seems to be a fairly promising attempt to deal with the shifting terms of Proudhon’s analysis from 1839 until his death and, as such, may be useful to others, if only as a bit more concrete suggestion that such a resolution is possible. Its early stages have been worked out on social media and it consists of: Two Twitter Threads… I. I’m back to wrestling with Proudhon’s Federative Principle. It’s a weird text, with anarchist […]
Proudhon Library

P.-J. Proudhon, “Principles of the Philosophy of Progress” (selections)

January 17, 2021 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Ms. 2867, part of “Economy,” contains a section on the “Principles of the Philosophy of Progress,” which focuses on the character of collective beings and collective reason, as well as sections applying the principles.] PRINCIPLES OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS I.—THE CONDITIONS OF EXISTENCE. Man is made up of parts called members or organs. What makes his reality is the animistic [animique] gathering of these organs into a whole that, as long as it lives, is called a person. In the same way, a society is made up of parts that are persons or aggregations of persons. What establishes the […]