Paul Brown Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Paul Brown, “A Moral Catechism” (1822)

May 11, 2021 Shawn P. Wilbur

An appendix to Paul Brown’s 1822 work, An Enquiry Concerning the Nature, End and Practicability of a Course of Philosophical Education. It contains a rather fascinating attempt to sketch out a system of virtues, faculties and passions. APPENDIX. A MORAL CATECHISM. Question. What is the chief end of man? Answer. Happiness. Q. In what sense is happiness the chief end of man? A. Happiness is the chief end of man in this sense, that it is the chief end of his pursuit, the prevailing object in which all his wishes terminate, and that to which his desires and aversions have […]

Paul Brown in the “Boston Investigator” (1832–1847)

February 4, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] B, “The Radical—No. III,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 1 (March 30, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 4,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 4 (April 20, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 5,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 5 (April 27, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 6,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 6 (May 4, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 7,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 7 (May 11, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 8,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 8 (May 18, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 9,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 9 (May 25, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 10,” […]

Paul Brown, “Twelve Months in New Harmony” (1827)

February 3, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

For several years I had been addicted to the contemplation of a new social order, in which all property should be held in common stock, being fully persuaded that this was the only equitable mode of subsisting of mankind in a state of society. I was driven to meditate on this subject by my suffering from the inadequacy of the existing institutions to extend justice to the poor, and the odious grinding influence of individual wealth and unequal usurped power, which in several instances had borne grievously afflictively upon me. I became acquainted with several persons in New-York City and in the state of Ohio, who were in the same train of speculation.

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“Gray Light”—Paul Brown in the New Harmony Gazette (1825–1827)

February 3, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

The inception and first instance of any mode, when not immediately perceived, is not an object of intuition or demonstrative knowledge. Such as that of the commencing of a customary way of subsisting, among the individuals of a race of animals with whatever degree of intelligence endued, must be abstracted to the most general sense, before it can be an object of assurance. To go to particulars, as of time, words, &c., is to carry the subject into the province of fiction. If we take into our purport the ideas of the names or shapes of persons,—the place where and the time when, i. e. the number of revolutions of the earth since, such a circumstance took place, as the herding together of several individuals of the human species, or the consociating of two individuals of that species, we cannot make the proposition an object of assurance, by the scale of a dialectic process. True logic excludes sophistry.

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Paul Brown, Gray Light, V-VIII (1825-1827)

November 24, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

GRAY LIGHT By “$” [Paul Brown] (From The New-Harmony Gazette, Dec. 21, 1825-Jan. 10, 1827) [Continued] GRAY LIGHT—No. V. Any irregularity of the passions is moral evil. According to movements of the passions, the outward actions are shaped. All excess of passion is moral evil. Any of the passions being in excess or attached to an improper object, is moral evil, because the passions, generally, have more or less of voluntary motion in them. Any thing undue, irregular, excessive, of this kind, immediately causes pain. Also these things constitute a predisposition to evil actions. Consecutive to our emotions, we act. […]

Paul Brown, Gray Light, I-IV (1825-1826)

November 23, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

GRAY LIGHT By “$” [Paul Brown] (From The New-Harmony Gazette, Dec. 21, 1825-Jan. 10, 1827) For the New-Harmony Gazette. GRAY LIGHT.—NO. I. The inception and first instance of any mode, when not immediately perceived, is not an object of intuition or demonstrative knowledge. Such as that of the commencing of a customary way of subsisting, among the individuals of a race of animals with whatever degree of intelligence endued, must be abstracted to the most general sense, before it can be an object of assurance. To go to particulars, as of time, words, &c., is to carry the subject into […]

An Early Libertarian Communist

November 7, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

Paul Brown, whose Twelve Months in New Harmony I posted some time ago, was, from various indications, a friend of Josiah Warren. He was also the most articulate voice in favor of property-in-common that we have from the New Harmony community. He was the author of a number of books, on a range of subjects, as well as some uncollected writings, under the title “Gray Light,” which appeared in the New Harmony Gazette. I’m working on transcribing Gray Light, which is probably one of the five or six most interesting uncollected works I’ve run across in the last few years. […]