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WHAT IS PROPERTY?
AN INQUIRY INTO THE PRINCIPLE OF
RIGHT AND OF GOVERNMENT
P. J. Proudhon
CONTENTS.
P. J. PROUDHON: HIS LIFE AND HIS WORKS
PREFACE
FIRST MEMOIR
CHAPTER I.
METHOD PURSUED IN THIS WORK.--THE IDEA OF A REVOLUTION
CHAPTER II.
PROPERTY CONSIDERED AS A NATURAL RIGHT.--OCCUPATION AND CIVIL LAW
AS EFFICIENT BASES OF PROPERTY.--DEFINITIONS
% 1. Property as a Natural Right.
% 2. Occupation as the Title to Property.
% 3. Civil Law as the Foundation and Sanction of Property.
CHAPTER III.
LABOR AS THE EFFICIENT CAUSE OF THE DOMAIN OF PROPERTY
% 1. The Land cannot be appropriated.
% 2. Universal Consent no Justification of Property.
% 3. Prescription gives no Title to Property.
% 4. Labor.--That Labor has no Inherent Power to appropriate
Natural Wealth.
% 5. That Labor leads to Equality of Property.
% 6. That in Society all Wages are Equal.
% 7. That Inequality of Powers is the Necessary Condition of
Equality of Fortunes.
% 8. That, from the stand-point of Justice, Labor destroys
Property.
CHAPTER IV.
THAT PROPERTY IS IMPOSSIBLE
DEMONSTRATION. AXIOM.
Property is the Right of Increase claimed by the Proprietor over
any thing which he has stamped as his own.
FIRST PROPOSITION.
Property is Impossible, because it demands Something for Nothing.
SECOND PROPOSITION.
Property is Impossible, because, wherever it exists, Production
costs more than it is worth.
THIRD PROPOSITION.
Property is Impossible, because, with a given Capital, Production
is proportional to Labor, not to Property.
FOURTH PROPOSITION.
Property is Impossible, because it is Homicide.
FIFTH PROPOSITION.
Property is Impossible, because, if it exists, Society devours itself.
Appendix to the Fifth Proposition.
SIXTH PROPOSITION.
Property is Impossible, because it is the Mother of Tyranny.
SEVENTH PROPOSITION.
Property is Impossible, because, in consuming its Receipts, it
loses them; in hoarding them, it nullifies them; and, in
using them as Capital, it turns them against Production.
EIGHTH PROPOSITION.
Property is Impossible, because its Power of Accumulation is
infinite, and is exercised only over Finite Quantities.
NINTH PROPOSITION
Property is Impossible, because it is powerless against Property.
TENTH PROPOSITION.
Property is Impossible, because it is the Negation of Equality.
CHAPTER V.
PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPOSITION OF THE IDEA OF JUSTICE AND IN JUSTICE,
AND A DETERMINATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF GOVERNMENT AND OF RIGHT.
PART 1.
% 1. Of the Moral Sense in Man and the Animals.
% 2. Of the First and Second Degrees of Sociability.
% 3. Of the Third Degree of Sociability.
PART I 1.
% 1. Of the Causes of our Mistakes. The Origin of Property.
% 2. Characteristics of Communism and of Property.
% 3. Determination of the Third Form of Society. Conclusion.
SECOND MEMOIR
LETTER TO M. BLANQUI ON PROPERTY
P. J. PROUDHON:
HIS LIFE AND HIS WORKS.
The correspondence[1] of P. J. Proudhon, the first volumes of
which we publish to-day, has been collected since his death by
the faithful and intelligent labors of his daughter, aided by a
few friends. It was incomplete when submitted to Sainte Beuve,
but the portion with which the illustrious academician became
acquainted was sufficient to allow him to estimate it as a whole
with that soundness of judgment which characterized him as a
literary critic.
[1] In the French edition of Proudhon's works, the above sketch
of his life is prefixed to the first volume of his
correspondence, but the translator prefers to insert it here as
the best method of introducing the author to the American public.
He would, however, caution readers against accepting the
biographer's interpretation of the author's views as in any sense
authoritative; advising them, rather, to await the publication of
the remainder of Proudhon's writings, that they may form an
opinion for themselves.--Translator.
In an important work, which his habitual readers certainly have
not forgotten, although death did not allow him to finish it,
Sainte Beuve thus judges the correspondence of the great
publicist:--
"The letters of Proudhon, even outside the circle of his
particular friends, will always be of value; we can always learn
something from them, and here is the proper place to determine
the general character of his correspondence.
"It has always been large, especially since he became so
celebrated; and, to tell the truth, I am persuaded that, in the
future, the correspondence of Proudhon will be his principal,
vital work, and that most of his books will be only accessory to
and corroborative of this. At any rate, his books can be well
understood only by the aid of his letters and the continual
explanations which he makes to those who consult him in their
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