Showing results by author "Pierre-Joseph Proudhon" in All Categories

What Is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and Government, originally titled in French as Quest-ce que la propriété ?, is a groundbreaking work by French anarchist and mutualist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, first published in 1840. In this provocative text, Proudhon famously declares that property is theft. He explores the multifaceted nature of property, drawing a line between its oppressive manifestations that uphold tyranny and its rightful forms that safeguard individual freedom. Proudhon asserts that genuine property is born from labor and active occupation while arguing that ...

‘Property is Theft’, a phrase which has passed into common parlance, was the rallying call of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s political treatise What Is Property? Proudhon (1809-1865) was both admired and excoriated. A political theorist of the first order, he was vilified in his native France by...

What Is Property?: or, An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government (French: Qu'est-ce que la propriété ? ou Recherche sur le principe du Droit et du Gouvernment) is an influential work of nonfiction on the concept of property and its relation to anarchist philosophy by the French anarchist and mutualist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, first published in 1840. In the book, Proudhon most famously declared that “property is theft”. Proudhon believed that the common conception of property conflated two distinct components which, once identified, demonstrated the difference between ...

Mankind can rule itself without the force of top-down authority, and freedom is more than just choosing how to meet the needs and demands of capital. Inequality is structural and intentional, not inevitable and necessary. It does not have to be this way. In solidarity, we are better. Think for yourself, and question authority. This is the essence of anarchism, which has a bad name and reputation because it attacks the necessity of centralised power and authority.