Proudhon’s “Catechism of Marriage”

OF THE CREATION OF ORDER IN HUMANITY OR PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ORGANIZATION BY P.-J. PROUDHON   Istæ sunt generationes cœli et terræ… Juxtà genus suum et speciem suam. (Gen. i et ii.)   NEW EDITION   1873   [originally published 1843, revised 1849] [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 […]

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Justice in the Revolution and in the Church, Volume I, “Program,” section X. § X. — Conditions for a philosophical propaganda. It is when religions pass away, when monarchies fail, when the politics of exploitation is reduced, in order to preserve itself, to proscribing the worker and the idea, and when the republic, everywhere on the agenda, seeks its formula; at the hour when the old convictions are dilapidated, when consciences are routed, when opinion is abandoned, when the multitude of egoisms shouts Every man for himself! that the moment arrives for an attempt at social restoration by […]

[Here is another section from the study on moral sanction, the concluding section of Justice in the Revolution and in the Church.] II. — Does society have the right to punish? The philosophers struggle, and the problem is still unresolved. While the Church invokes divine right, the mandate received by it to cure souls, and, if necessary, to execute the bodies of those who disdain the law, the so-called rationalists allege, some legitimate defense, others the talion or vengeance, these the necessity of the example, those, who we could call semi-theologians, the mental hygiene and good of the culprits. Mr. […]