Working Translations

New Proudhon Library

P.-J. Proudhon, “The Political Capacity of the Working Classes” (1865)

January 22, 2024 Shawn P. Wilbur
[These draft translations are part of on ongoing effort to establish 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 publication elsewhere in their present state. — Shawn P. Wilbur, translator] de la capacité politique des classes ouvrières par P.-J. PROUDHON PARIS E. DENTU, LIBRAIRE-ÉDITEUR […]
New Proudhon Library

P.-J. Proudhon, Economy (Ms. 2866) — selected translations

January 15, 2024 Shawn P. Wilbur
ECONOMY, PART II Psychology of the Collective Being, Its Faculties. Its Ideas. Its Judgments. Its Laws. Origins of Right. APHORISMS or PRINCIPLES OR REVOLUTIONARY RIGHT. […] [71] In all orders of ideas, we will see that the notions that direct the collective reason are not the same as those that direct individuals; that, unbeknownst to us, we have, so to speak, two minds and two languages, a mind for interest, speculation and individual [propre] justice, and a mind for general interest, synthetic philosophy and universal justice, quite different from the first; — a language for our individual ideas and a […]
New Proudhon Library

Proudhon, “Economy” (Ms. 18255, BnF, excerpts)

December 12, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
These writings come from a manuscript held by the French national library, with the title “Economy.” Like the other manuscripts with that title, it appears to be from the early 1850s. This particular set of writings are not presented in that wonderfully readable script that Proudhon used when finishing manuscripts. Quite the contrary, much of the material here is written in a baffling scrawl, which takes multiple examinations to decipher. So there are almost certainly small errors, as well as the obvious gaps. Use with care. [18r] Literature. What the scribblers have called grandeur and decadence in literature, and in […]
Featured articles

Proudhon, “The Philosophy of Progress” (revised and expanded translation)

December 10, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
Proudhon’s Philosophy of Progress is one of those books that has simply become part of my basic intellectual toolkit, but in ways that I often forget — at least until I read it again and re-encounter all the delightful ideas and turns of phrase it contains. Returning to it over the last week has been a pleasure, but I’ve also felt a bit pressured to wrap up the preliminaries and get on to the notes on Justice in the Revolution and in the Church.

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Featured articles

Proudhon, “The Celebration of Sunday” (revised and expanded translation)

December 3, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’m a few days behind schedule getting the first notes on Justice together. Among other things, I’ve been trying to make the most of a narrow fall window to get our yard a little bit better adapted to changing conditions. But work is progressing. I should have test prints of the “text” editions of the first two volumes within a week, at which point I’ll make ordering copies an option for others, and I’ve been trying to shoehorn in the time to put together a companion volume collecting some pre-1858 texts that provide useful context.

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encyclopedia entries

Dictionary of Phalansterian Sociology — X-Z

October 24, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
X Emploi de la lettre x dans la théorie de la distribution sériaire. — La lettre X a été adoptée par Fourier pour désigner dans la distribution sériaire les groupes de pivot et de contre-pivot. X couché, le groupe de pivot de série. [><] X droit, indique le groupe de contre-pivot. N. 63 — Voir : signe, néologie. Use of the letter x in the theory of serial distribution. — The letter X has been adopted by Fourier to designate the pivotal and counter-pivotal groups in the serial distribution. X on its side, the pivotal group of the series. [><] […]
Bakunin Library

Sacher-Masoch, “Bakunin” (1888)

September 28, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
The only one who impressed me, among the agitators and leaders of the Slavs, at the pan-Slavist congress in Prague, was Mikhail Bakunin. Like all notable Russians of that time, he was from a good family, a gentleman, an officer, very educated, rich, and therefore absolutely independent, as were Pushkin, Lermontoff, Tourguéneff. He was not bothered by any material question and was not obliged to reckon with anyone. He could be the enthusiastic idealist he remained until the end of his days.

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New Proudhon Library

P.-J. Proudhon, Correspondence related to the Studies in Popular Philosophy

September 6, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
Under the general title of Popular Philosophy, I begin an indefinite series of publications on all sorts of subjects, history, literature, political economy, morals, biography, etc., men and things. All this judged, appreciated, explained, interpreted with the aid of the new philosophical principle, the highest and most fruitful, at once objective and subjective, idea and sentiment, law of man and law of nature, justice. Give me five years of this popularization, and I dare say that the public, today tired, disgusted, skeptical, will again take courage and conceive what a philosophical system is, a kind of encyclopedia, whose principle, law, method, end, means, is right.

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New Proudhon Library

P.-J. Proudhon, “The Creation of Order in Humanity” — Chapter III

August 23, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
I must admit it at this solemn moment: what worries me is less the uncertainty of my route than the deep feeling of my weakness; the distractions of my life, and the misfortune of an entirely philosophical and religious education have hardly allowed me to learn anything. It’s not the design, it’s the materials that I lack for the reconstruction. All I know I owe to despair; fortune depriving me of the means of acquiring, I want one day, from shreds picked up during my short studies, to create a science by myself alone.

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Working Translations

E. Armand, The Anarchist Individualist Initiation — V

August 21, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Anarchist Individualist Initiation E. ARMAND [ENGLISH TEXT ONLY] ☜ 4. The individualists and the reformers of the milieu social. The law of continuous progress. 6. Authority, Domination, Exploitation: Origin, Evolution, Aspects and Definitions. ☞ DEUXIÈME PARTIE LES THÈSES PRATIQUES DE L’INDIVIDUALISM ANARCHISTE 5. Le Christianisme et les Individualists. La tournure d’esprit païenne. 47) Le christianisme primitif. Y a-t-il un lien de parenté quelconque entre le christianisme et l’anarchism ? Peut-on les concilier ? Peut-on soutenir que les anarchists — individualists ou communists — sont ce que seraient devenus les chrétiens si le christianisme avait suivi son évolution normale au […]