Proudhon’s “Catechism of Marriage”

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Justice in the Revolution and in the Church, Volume I, “Program,” section IX. § IX. — Supremacy of Justice. Philosophy defined; Its dualism established; Its levelling spirit and its democratic tendency demonstrated; The formation of ideas, perceptions and concepts explained; The criterium having been found, the goal indicated, the synthetic formula given, man’s purpose determined; One can say, in a sense, that philosophy is finished. It is finished, since it can present itself before the multitude and say to it: I am JUSTICE, Ego sum qui sum; it is I who shall draw you forth from misery and […]

Nobody who knows me or my work will be surprised if I admit to working primarily on a large — and sometimes over-large — scale. There are obvious disadvantages to the approach: I have certainly not published as much as I might have, in any of the various fields where I’ve gained some expertise, and much of the writing I have done has been in the form of theoretical “feelers” and thought experiments scattered in a wide variety of forums. The more definitive statements that I have started have been slow to develop. The logistics of serious interdisciplinary study are […]

From the Proudhon-seminar list: I took a trip into Portland today, to check in at the radical bookstore where I’m volunteering and to look over some untranslated material in a fresh setting. It always seems to clear my head even just to get out on the light-rail and work a bit. And I can be sure of having a cat-free lap, which is not the case in my office at home. As I mentioned, I’ve been working on the “Summary of my earlier works on property,” from Proudhon’s posthumously-published “The Theory of Property.” In that chapter, Proudhon makes some criticisms […]