Proudhon: What is Property? (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

This Is A 1994 Translation Of One Of The Classics Of The Traditions Of Anarchism And Socialism. Pierre-joseph Proudhon Was A Contemporary Of Marx And One Of The Most Acute, Influential And Subversive Critics Of Modern French And European Society. His What Is Property? (1840) Produced The Answer 'property Is Theft'; The Book Itself Has Become A Classic Of Political Thought Through Its Wide-ranging And Deep-reaching Critique Of Private Property As At Once The Essential Institution Of Western Culture And The Root Cause Of Greed, Corruption, Political Tyranny, Social Division And Violation Of Natural Law. A Critical And Historical Introduction Situates Proudhon's 'diabolical Work' (as He Called It) In The Context Of Nineteenth-century Social And Legal Controversy And Of The History Of Political Thought In General. --publisher Description. Preface -- 1. Method Followed In T His Work : Idea Of A Revolution -- 2. Property Considered As A Natural Right -- Occupation And Civil Law As Efficient Causes Of Property -- 3. Labor As The Efficient Cause Of The Domain Of Property -- Land Cannot Be Appropriated -- Universal Consent Does Not Justify Property -- Prescription Never Gives Title To Property -- Labor : That Labor By Itself Has No Power To Appropriate The Things Of Nature -- The Labor Leads To Equality Of Property -- That In Society All Wages Are Equal -- That The Inequality Of Faculties Is The Necessary Condition Of Equality Of Fortunes -- That, In Terms Of Justice, Labor Destroys Property -- 4. That Property Is Impossible : Property Is Physically And Mathematically Impossible -- Property Is Impossible Because It Demands Something From Nothing -- Property Is Impossible Because Wherever It Exists, Production Costs More Than It Is Worth --^ Property Is Impossible Because With A Given Capital Production Is Proportional To Labor, Not To Property -- Property Is Impossible Because It Is Homicide -- Property Is Impossible Because With It Society Devours Itself -- Property Is Impossible Because It Is The Mother Of Tyranny -- Property Is Impossible Because In Consuming What It Receives It Loses It, Because In Saving It Nullifies It, And Because In Using It As Capital It Turns It Against Production -- Property Is Impossible Because Its Power Of Accumulation Is Infinite, While It Is Exercised Only Over Finite Quantities -- Property Is Impossible Because It Is Powerless Against Property -- Property Is Impossible Because It Is The Negative Of Equality -- 5. Psychological Exposition Of The Idea Of The Just And The Unjust And Determination Of The Principle Of Government And Right -- Of The Moral Sense In Man And In Animals -- Of The First And Second Degrees Of Sociability -- Of The Third Degree Of Sociability --^ Of The Causes Of Errors : The Origin Of Property -- Characteristics Of Communism And Of Property -- Determination Of The Third Social Form : Conclusions. Pierre-joseph Proudhon ; Edited And Translated By Donald R. Kelley And Bonnie G. Smith. Translation Of: Qu'est-ce Que La Propriété? Includes Bibliographical References (p. 218-221) And Index. “Property is robbery!” This slogan coined by the French political philosopher (https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/pierre-joseph-proudhon) Pierre-Joseph Proudhon is one of his answers to the titular question of his 1840 treatise, What Is Property? A fervent attack against the established order of capitalism and private property, the publication of What Is Property? almost immediately led to Proudhon’s official prosecution and the revocation of Proudhon’s scholarship by the Academy of Besançon. (Proudhon, an autodidact of humble origins who began his working life as a printer, relied on the scholarship for financial support.) Proudhon evaded the worst of the consequences thanks to the intervention of the economist Jérôme-Adolphe Blanqui, to whom the second memoir contained in the book is addressed. In this treatise, Proudhon contrasts the legitimate right to possession , in which individuals own the products of their labor and the necessary means of production, and the illegitimate right to property , the absolute right granted to proprietors by civil laws to “use and abuse.” Proudhon examines the implications of the right to property and concludes that, among other things, property is “impossible,” “homicide,” and “the mother of tyranny.” As an alternative to both the proprietary and communist systems of economic organization, Proudhon advances his anarchist economic theory of “mutualism,” in which a socialist society would be organized based on free market exchanges wherein the value of a good or service is determined by the time and expense it has cost the laborer to produce. This edition of What Is Property? was translated in 1876 by Benjamin Tucker, who was a notable advocate of individualist anarchism in his own right in the United States.

This is a new translation of one of the classics of the traditions of anarchism and socialism. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a contemporary of Marx and one of the most acute, influential, and subversive critics of modern French and European society. What is Property? (1840) has become a classic of political thought through its wide-ranging and deep-reaching critique of private property as at once the essential institution of Western culture and the root cause of greed, corruption, political tyranny, social division, and violation of natural law.