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Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865)

Author of What is Property?

67+ Works 981 Members 13 Reviews 5 Favorited

About the Author

Image credit: From Wikimedia Commons, Gustave Courbet.

Works by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

What is Property? (1840) 469 copies
The principle of federation (1977) 36 copies
Oeuvres choisies (1967) 12 copies
La pornocratie (2009) 8 copies
Essential Proudhon (2012) 8 copies
Theorie des Eigentums (2001) 6 copies
La Démocratie (2014) 2 copies
unknown work 1 copy
Pobres y ricos — Author — 1 copy

Associated Works

A Documentary History of Art, Volume 3 (1966) — Contributor — 152 copies
The Anarchist Reader (1977) — Author, some editions — 124 copies
The Anarchists (1964) — Contributor — 112 copies
Bakoenin : een biografie in tijdsdocumenten (1977) — Contributor — 19 copies

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Reviews

Not a book I'd recommend as an introduction to anarchism or something like that but still a fascinating and fiery text. Most notable on the "very bad" side is that women are referred to approximately twice, where they're called as different to men as men are to goats and it's said they should probably be "excluded from society"! Christ. This is symptomatic of a wider problem, where he doesn't really seem to consider the full implications of what he says past the abstract - for example he seems to still believe in nations and the structure of French society post-revolution, although he's not really explicit. In addition, his reasoning is based to a very large extent on the ideas of external non-human "justice", "liberty" and "reason," which is hard to accept now, especially as he says a lot of things are "just" or whatever with no reasoning, which makes his uncritical acceptance of his own society's ideals even more obvious and awkward.

Despite this, I still enjoyed it and found his arguments interesting. His demolition of the concept of property based on the arguments used in defence of it at the time is incredibly effective and not really diminished by changing defences since. His style is passionate and, even though antiquated, inspiring. His vision of society isn't really detailed and is pretty utopian but still good reading. As a historical document, his adherence to the ideals of and regular references to the French Revolution as well as his clear rooting in that tradition is interesting.

overall pretty decent but very varied and what you get out of it depends on what you're expecting
… (more)
 
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tombomp | 6 other reviews | Oct 31, 2023 |
Who translated this is not clear from the information in the book. That would require research.
 
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LanternLibrary | Feb 17, 2017 |
The book has a biographical essay by J. A. Langlois, "P. J. Proudhon, His Life and Work."
 
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LanternLibrary | 6 other reviews | Feb 17, 2017 |
He begins the System with a discourse on God: interesting since he's an atheist. He states that without the hypothesis of God reliable social studies can not be done. He argues strongly against socialism and its limitations and I feel the brief comments on his work do not do him justice. He seriously considers the God hypothesis and is not blindly following socialist thought. I find him to be a thoughtful critic of ideas throughout.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a 19th Century French politician, philosopher, and socialist. He was a member of the French Parliament, and he was the first person to call himself an "anarchist". His best-known assertion is that Property is Theft!, contained in his first major work, What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and Government (Qu'est-ce que la propriété? Recherche sur le principe du droit et du gouvernement), published in 1840. The book's publication attracted the attention of the French authorities. It also attracted the scrutiny of Karl Marx, who started a correspondence with its author. The two influenced each other: they met in Paris while Marx was exiled there. Their friendship finally ended when Marx responded to Proudhon's The System of Economic Contradictions, or The Philosophy of Poverty with the provocatively titled The Poverty of Philosophy. Proudhon favored workers' associations or co-operatives, as well as individual worker/peasant possession, over private ownership or the nationalization of land and workplaces. He considered that social revolution could be achieved in a peaceful manner. In The Confessions of a Revolutionary Proudhon asserted that, Anarchy is Order, the phrase which much later inspired, in the view of some, the anarchist circled-A symbol, today "one of the most common graffiti on the urban landscape." He unsuccessfully tried to create a national bank, to be funded by what became an abortive attempt at an income tax on capitalists and stockholders. Similar in some respects to a credit union, it would have given interest-free loans.… (more)
 
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gmicksmith | Aug 9, 2011 |

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Works
67
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Rating
3.8
Reviews
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ISBNs
188
Languages
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