Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

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A Schematic Anarchism: Notes on Application

November 9, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur
It’s no very great leap from the position I had already taken in “A Schematic Anarchism” to the one I’ve been exploring in Proudhon’s manuscripts. In general, I have been proposing that we shift our approach from endless, more or less interminable arguments about whether or not a given ideology or practice is anarchism or not to analyses of proposed anarchisms that ask: “If we treat X as an instance of anarchism, in what sense is that claim true and how does it compare to other instances?” The answers to that question ought to demonstrate that some of the proposed anarchisms only qualify in the most trivial senses, on the basis of the most implausible explanations, while others can be plausibly situated among the ranks of anarchisms on the basis of a variety of plausible narratives.

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New Proudhon Library

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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Contr'un

Notes on the Development of Proudhon’s Thought

October 4, 2021 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related links: These notes will obviously be of most use to those who have followed previous discussions of the individual texts, but it represents what seems to be a fairly promising attempt to deal with the shifting terms of Proudhon’s analysis from 1839 until his death and, as such, may be useful to others, if only as a bit more concrete suggestion that such a resolution is possible. Its early stages have been worked out on social media and it consists of: Two Twitter Threads… I. I’m back to wrestling with Proudhon’s Federative Principle. It’s a weird text, with anarchist […]
Featured articles

Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism — No. 3

July 14, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
“Life as experience tears up programs, treads decorum under foot, breaks the windows, descends from the ivory tower. It abandons the City of Established Facts, out through the Gate of Settled Matters and roams, vagabond, in the open countryside of the Unforeseen.” Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism: Project page Related links: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: Self-Government and the Citizen-State E. Armand, “Life as Experience” (1906) Renzo Novatore, “Intellectual Vagabonds” (1917) “Note on Mutualism and the Market-Form“ “A passage missing from The Theory of Property“ “Proudhon on the State in 1861“ “Authority, Liberty and the Federative Principle“ “Anarchy: Historical, Abstract and […]
Contr'un

Notes on Liberty and neo-Proudhonian Anarchism

April 21, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
If we step entirely away from legal/governmental conceptions of liberty, where it is a question of permissions and prohibitions, then one of the options is to address liberty in terms similar to those used by Proudhon. He spoke about quantities of liberty within beings and social collectivities, determined by the complexity and intensity of their internal relations.

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Proudhon Library

Proudhon on Socialism (“Theory of Property” manuscripts)

February 29, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
Socialisme.—Tout mot et sujet a plusieurs acceptations. Si Théorie de la société, ou Science sociale ;—je l’affirmes. Si parti qui affirme une science sociale, la nécessité de réformer la société conformément à la science : j’en fais partie. C’état ce que nous affirmions en 48. Si par socialisme, en entend le droit social, par opposition au droit individuel, j’admets ce système, comme partie intégrante du système entier de l’Humanité ; mais si l’on entend lui donner la prépondérance sur la liberté, je le nie, c’est communisme. Ainsi l’a compris Pierre Leroux ; ainsi il l’a tour à tour attaqué et […]