First Study Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Justice in the Revolution and in the Church: First Study (Parallel English)

February 6, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur

The theory of Immanence, while resolving the apparent contradictions of morality, still explains all the fictions of the allegedly revealed system. It gives, so to speak, the natural history of theology and worship, the reason for the mysteries, the biography of the gods. It shows us how religion was born from the preponderance given in society to one of the essential elements of the soul, an element which, sovereign in metaphysics, must remain secondary in practice, the Ideal. It is only of yesterday, and we already owe to it that spark which makes the lights of the old faith pale; slandered excessively, it will save us from the corruptions in extremis of a reaction to despair and a religiosity that is dying out.

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Justice in the Revolution and in the Church: First Study (Parallel French)

January 6, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur

PREMIÈRE ÉTUDE POSITION DU PROBLÈME DE LA JUSTICE À Son Éminence Mgr Matthieu, Cardinal-Archevêque de Besançon. Monseigneur, Avez-vous eu connaissance d’un petit livre, format in-32, couverture jaune, qui a paru, il y a tantôt deux ans, sous ce titre : Proudhon, par Eugène de Mirecourt, chez Gustave Havard, éditeur, rue Guénégaud, Paris ? — Non, répondez-vous, mes souvenirs ne remontent pas si haut. Je ne connais ni l’auteur ni son ouvrage. — Pardon, Monseigneur : ce petit livre fait partie d’une collection intitulée les Contemporains. Il a pour numéro d’ordre 32. C’est une soi-disant biographie dont l’auteur, M. de Mirecourt, après avoir reconnu, […]

Justice in the Revolution and in the Church: Preliminary Discourse (Parallel English)

January 5, 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 publication elsewhere in their present state.

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Justice in the Revolution and in the Church: Preliminary Discourse (Parallel French)

January 1, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur

— 1858 First Edition — — 1860 Revised Edition — DE LA JUSTICE DANS LÀ RÉVOLUTION ET DANS L’ÉGLISE. ÉTUDES DE PHILOSOPHIE PRATIQUE ADRESSÉES A SON ÉMINENCE M. LE CARDINAL MATTHIEU, ARCHEVÊQUE DE BESANÇON. PROLOGUE Sous le nom d’un archevêque, j’adresse ces Études à tous les membres du clergé français. Comme au temps des Césars la société est menacée de se dissoudre ; et comme au temps des Césars l’Église croit avoir seule la puissance de la régénérer. L’ouvrage qu’on va lire ayant pour but de reconnaître la réalité et l’intensité du mal, d’en assigner la cause, d’en découvrir le remède, […]

Of Justice in the Revolution and in the Church: Popular Philosophy—Program (1860)

July 28, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur

At the beginning of a new work, we should explain our title and our intentions.

Ever since humanity entered the period of civilization, for as long as anyone can recall, the people, said Paul Louis Courier, have prayed and paid.

They pray for their princes, for their magistrates, for their exploiters and their parasites;

They pray, like Jesus Christ, for their executioners;

They pray for the very ones who should, by rights, pray for them.

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Proudhon, Justice: Program

February 23, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

PROUDHON LIBRARY home page Justice in the Revolution and in the Church (in progress): Popular Philosophy: Program First Study: Position of the Problem of Justice Second Study: Persons Third Study: Goods Fourth Study: The State Fifth Study: Education Sixth Study: Labor Seventh Study: Ideas Eighth Study: Conscience and Freedom Ninth Study: Progress and Decadence Tenth Study: Love and Marriage Eleventh Study: Love and Marriage (contined) Twelfth Study: Moral Sanction JUSTICE IN THE REVOLUTION AND IN THE CHURCH. BY PIERRE-JOSEPH PROUDHON [1] _________ Volume I POPULAR PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM I. — The coming of the people to philosophy. At the beginning of […]

Proudhon on “libertarians” in 1858

November 2, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve been working my way through those sections of Proudhon’s Justice in the Revolution and in the Church which I didn’t have to consult carefully while writing the chapter on the State, as the next step towards organizing the Proudhon book. There have been a few moments when I’ve kicked myself for not going back and looking at sections, and more than a few where passages I read through in 2008-9 look very different to me now. There are two studies which I’ve never even begun to really do justice, but, so far, the most interesting surprise has come […]