Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Contr'un

“Labor destroys Property” (Notes on “What is Property?”)

February 11, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] This is another bit extracted from a social media exchange elsewhere, dealing with the progression of Proudhon’s argument against both property in materials and property in product in “What is Property?” Even if it is a bit out-of-context, it should help emphasize how important getting through all of Chapter III is to understanding Proudhon’s point. And once you’ve done that, you can start your collection of weird conclusions drawn by people who didn’t get all the way through. [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] I don’t think it’s unreasonable, particularly when dealing with a book that […]
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Frederick R. Burton, “Spencer and Proudhon” (1892)

December 22, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] Spencer and Proudhon. To the Editor of Liberty: About a year ago I enjoyed the highly esteemed privilege of a conversation with Mr. Herbert Spencer. That the distinguished philosopher did the lion’s share of the talking was natural and satisfactory. It was evident that he had prepared himself in some measure for the meeting, for he discoursed fluently on three or four topics without so much as a pause for questions. I was pleased to discover from this slight personal contact what I had gathered from so much study of his […]
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P.-J. Proudhon, Selections from the “Carnets”

April 13, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third] Selections from the Carnets Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ————— Carnets, Vol. 1 (Carnet No. 1, 17): 27. Serial law. Everything in nature is simple and complex. What we call a simple idea or element is nothing but the term with which we ended our analysis. Each day I experience the truth of that observation, […] Carnets, Vol. 1 (Carnet 2, 38): 133. In order to organize society, to reestablish order, we must not wish to escape antinomic principles; we must seek one that coordinates with them. This principle exists, simpler and more common than anything the laws have ever prescribed: return […]
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P.-J. Proudhon, The Creation of Order in Humanity

March 31, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related links: Auguste Beauchery, “Solution of the Problem of Certainty” THE CREATION OF ORDER IN HUMANITY, OR, PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ORGANIZATION —————————- DEFINITIONS 1. I call Order every seriated or symmetrical arrangement. Order necessarily presupposes division, distinction, difference. Nothing undivided, indistinct, undifferentiated, can be understood as ordered: these notions are mutually exclusive. [1] 2. The ideas of intelligence and final cause are foreign to the idea of order. In fact, order can appear to us as an unforeseen result of properties inherent in the various parts of a whole: intelligence cannot, in this case, be designated as a principle of […]
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Proudhon, Justice: Eleventh Study

March 29, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 10px”] JUSTICE IN THE REVOLUTION AND IN THE CHURCH ELEVENTH STUDY LOVE AND MARRIAGE [continued] […] CATECHISM OF MARRIAGE Question. — What is the conjugal couple? Answer. — Every power of nature, every faculty of life, every affection of the soul, every category of the intelligence, needs an organ, in order to manifest itself and act. The sentiment of Justice can be no exception to that law. But Justice, which rules all the other faculties and surpasses liberty itself, not being able to have its organ in the individual, would remain for man a notion without […]
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P.-J. Proudhon, “War and Peace,” Volume II

March 28, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 10px”] War and Peace, Vol. I How Business Goes in France and Why We Will Have War [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 10px 0 10px”]   WAR AND PEACE INVESTIGATIONS REGARDING THE PRINCIPLE AND CONSTITUTION OF THE RIGHTS OF NATIONS BOOK THREE WAR IN ITS FORMS [continued] […] BOOK FIVE TRANSFORMATION OF WAR Pacis imponers morem. Virgil. SUMMARY. THESIS. — War, according to its partisans, primitive form of justice with its basis in nature and consciousness, is susceptible to reform. The abuse that sullies it is no more an argument against it than the aberrations of love, paternity or […]
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P.-J. Proudhon, “War and Peace,” Volume I

March 24, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 10px”]   WAR AND PEACE INVESTIGATIONS REGARDING THE PRINCIPLE AND CONSTITUTION OF THE RIGHTS OF NATIONS TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface BOOK ONE: PHENOMENOLOGY OF WAR Chapter One. — Of the phenomenality of war Chap. II. — War is a divine fact Chap. III. — War, religious revelation Chap. IV. — War, revelation of justice Chap. V. — War, revelation of the ideal Chap. Vl. — War, discipline of humanity Chap. VII. — The man of war is greater than nature Chap. VIII. — War and peace, correlative expressions Chap. IX. — Problem of war and peace BOOK […]
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P.-J Proudhon, “The Social Revolution Demonstrated by the Coup d’Etat” (1852)

March 21, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Social Revolution is a radical book with a strangely reactionary reputation. Having already addressed his ideas to all the most likely audiences, during the period when revolutionary hopes were still widespread in France, he turned, during his prison sentence, to less likely audiences. For example, The General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, which has retained a very radical reputation, was addressed to the bourgeoisie. So it is only through an escalation of his existing strategy that his next work became a call to the newly self-proclaimed Emperor Napoleon III to recognize the inevitability of the Social […]
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Proudhon, Justice: Eighth Study

March 10, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] PROUDHON LIBRARY home page Justice in the Revolution and in the Church (in progress):: Popular Philosophy: Program [draft] First Study: Position of the Problem of Justice Second Study: Persons Third Study: Goods Fourth Study: The State [excerpts] Fifth Study: Education Sixth Study: Labor Seventh Study: Ideas Eighth Study: Conscience and Freedom [excerpts] Ninth Study: Progress and Decadence Tenth Study: Love and Marriage Eleventh Study: Love and Marriage (continued) Twelfth Study: Moral Sanction [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] CHAPTER V Nature and function of liberty. XXXI. Let us finish first with the ambiguity which, on this […]
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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 […]