Madame proudhon what is property

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“I feel as deeply as you, sir, the abuses which you point out; but I have so great an affection for order, — not that common and strait-laced order with which the police are satisfied, but the majestic and imposing order of human societies, — that I sometimes find myself embarrassed in attacking certain abuses.

But if you have softened the form, you are none the less faithful to the ground-work of your doctrines; and although you have done me the honor to give me a share in this perilous teaching, I cannot accept a partnership which, as far as talent goes, would surely be a credit to me, but which would compromise me in all other respects. No man’s esteem for another can exceed mine for you.

The dispute became one of the sources of the split between the anarchist and Marxist wings of the International Working Men's Association.

“Instead of confining one to common places without breadth or significance, it seems to me that your question should be developed as follows: —

“If the law has been able to render the right of heredity common to all the children of one father, can it not render it equal for all his grandchildren and great-grandchildren?

Proudhon described the liberty he pursued as "the synthesis of communism and property".

“It is for you now, gentlemen, whose mission and character are the proclamation of the truth, it is for you to instruct the people, and to tell them for what they ought to hope and what they ought to fear. Recherche sur le principe du droit et du gouvernement), published in 1840.

Proudhon 1840

“To the Members of the Academy of Besançon.

“I am, with the profoundest respect and the most earnest gratitude,

“Your pensioner,

“P. This proposition, now coming into notice — property is robbery!

“Paris, June 30, 1840.

“But, gentlemen, of all the masters whom I have followed, to none do I owe so much as to you.

I have always thought, for my part, that bad institutions made bad magistrates; just as the cowardice and hypocrisy of certain bodies results solely from the spirit which governs them. Honest people can at least understand one another. The book's publication attracted the attention of the French authorities.

“These three propositions, put to vote, are adopted.”

After this ludicrous decree, which its authors thought to render powerful by giving it the form of a contradiction, I can only beg the reader not to measure the intelligence of my compatriots by that of our Academy.

On the following conditions, then, of subsequent evidence, depends the correctness of my preceding arguments: —

The discovery of a system of absolute equality in which all existing institutions, save property, or the sum of the abuses of property, not only may find a place, but may themselves serve as instruments of equality: individual liberty, the division of power, the public ministry, the jury system, administrative and judicial organization, the unity and completeness of instruction, marriage, the family, heredity in direct and collateral succession, the right of sale and exchange, the right to make a will, and even birthright, — a system which, better than property, guarantees the formation of capital and keeps up the courage of all; which, from a superior point of view, explains, corrects, and completes the theories of association hitherto proposed, from Plato and Pythagoras to Babeuf, Saint Simon, and Fourier; a system, finally, which, serving as a means of transition, is immediately applicable.

“GENTLEMEN, — In the course of your debate of the 9th of May, 1833, in regard to the triennial pension established by Madame Suard, you expressed the following wish: —

“ ‘The Academy requests the titulary to present it annually, during the first fortnight in July, with a succinct and logical statement of the various studies which he has pursued during the year which has just expired.’

“I now propose, gentlemen, to discharge this duty.