What Is Property: An Inquiry Into The Principle Of Right And Of Government - Softcover

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0461860406 ISBN 13: 9780461860405

Publisher: HardPress, 2021

Synopsis

What Is Property?: An Inquiry Into The Principle Of Right And Of Government by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon presents front matter that frames the life and thought of the author, including a biographical sketch, translations/notes, and an editor’s Preface, followed by the opening sections of Proudhon’s major work. The biographical material outlines Proudhon’s humble Besançon origins, early poverty, self-education, work as a printer, linguistic interests, and his development as a thinker influenced by the Bible, Adam Smith, and Hegel. It traces his career in publishing, the Suard pension, his militant critique of property, revolts, exile, later works, and his death in 1865, framing property criticism as a campaign for equality of conditions. The Preface records his aim to abolish privilege and property in the name of justice and equality while pledging rigorous, evidence-based argument, tempered by contemporary prudence. The opening of the work argues that property is an “effect without a cause,” to be abolished for true liberty, equality, and security, and sketches a three-part program to analyze foundations of property, expose its inconsistencies, and articulate a rational ideal for society. Chapter I reframes property as robbery and outlines a method to develop a just alternative, while Chapter II surveys property’s bases in occupation and civil law, distinguishing possession from ownership and arguing that civil law fabricates property rather than deriving it from nature. The result is a dense, polemical, historically situated critique of property, its constitution, and its alleged natural rights, set within a mid- to late-19th-century European debate. The text emphasizes justice as a measure of political economy and forecasts a broader program to reorganize society around equality.

Edition details

• Publisher: HardPress
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0461860406
• ISBN 13: 9780461860405
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 523