justice

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Justice in the Revolution and in the Church, Volume I, “Program,” section XI. § XI. — Law of progress: Social destination. An objection is posed.—If the center or pivot of philosophy, namely Justice, is, like that of being, invariable and fixed, the system of things, which, in fact and in right, rests on that center, must also be defined in itself, and consequently fixed in its ensemble and tending to immutability. Leibnitz regarded this world as the best possible; he should have said, in virtue of the law of equilibrium that presides over it, that it is the […]

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 […]

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 […]

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Justice in the Revolution and in the Church, Volume I, “Program,” section VIII. § VIII. — Justice, the universal reason of things. — Science and conscience. The people, in their laborious existence, even more than the philosophers in their speculations, have need of a guide: they need, we have said, a guide for their reason, a rule for their conscience, a superior point of view from which they may embrace their knowledge and their destiny. All this they found in religion. God, the eternal Word, had created man from clay and had animated him with his breath; God […]

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Justice in the Revolution and in the Church, Volume I, “Program,” section VII. § VII. Before passing on, will you allow me to make the observation that there is not an artisan who is not in a perfect state to understand what philosophy proposes, since there is not one who, in the exercise of his profession, does not make use of several means of justification, measure, evaluation and control? The worker has, to direct him in his labors, the yardstick, the scale, the square, the rule, the plumb, the level, the compass, standards, specimens, guides, a touchstone, etc. […]

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Justice in the Revolution and in the Church, Volume I, “Program,” section VI. § VI. — That philosophy must be essentially practical. We would be gravely mistaken if we imagined that philosophy, because it defined itself as the Search for the [22] reason of things, has no other end than to make us discover that reason, and that its object is exclusively speculative. Already, by showing that these conditions are those of common sense, its certainty the same for all, its highest conceptions of the same form and quality as its most elementary propositions, we have had occasion […]

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Justice in the Revolution and in the Church, Volume I, “Program,” section V. § V. — That metaphysics is within the province of primary instruction. The definition of philosophy implies by its terms: 1) someone who seeks, observes, analyzes, synthesizes and discovers, which we call the Subject or Moi; 2) something which is observed, analyzed, the reason of which we seek, and which we call the Object or Non-moi. The first – the observer, subject, moi, or mind – is active; the second – the thing observed, object, non-moi, or phenomenon – is passive. Let us not frighten […]

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Justice in the Revolution and in the Church, Volume I, “Program,” section IV. IV.– The origin of ideas. Here is the great temptation, I should say the great conspiracy of the philosophers; here is also their chastisement. This principle so luminous, so simple, that in order to know the reason of things, it is necessary to have seen them, has not always been (can you believe it?) accepted in philosophy. Without speaking of those, in so great a number, aspired to sound the nature of things, one encounters profound geniuses who have asked if the human mind, so […]