What Is Property? · Chapter
§ 2 explained
Proudhon explores the dual nature of justice as a combination of social instinct and the idea of equality, arguing that property is inherently unjust and impossible because it violates the necessary equality of society.
What happens
Proudhon explores the dual nature of justice as a combination of social instinct and the idea of equality, arguing that property is inherently unjust and impossible because it violates the necessary equality of society. He distinguishes between special social duties (like family preference) and universal justice, and compares human sociability to that of animals, concluding that justice arises from intellect and emotion, not innate sentiment.
Themes in this chapter
Equality and Justice
Central theme: justice is defined as sociability combined with equality; property as inequality is declared unjust and impossible.
Sociability and Community
Explored through the concept of special societies within universal society, and the comparison of human and animal social instincts.
Characters to notice
- Pierre Joseph Proudhon
Author and primary voice; develops the theory of justice as sociability combined with equality, and critiques property as inequality.
- Plato
Mentioned as an example of high intelligence in the context of the development of the moral sense and ideas of justice.
Key passages
“justice, born of emotion and intellect combined, seems to me one of the strongest proofs of the unity and simplicity of the ego”
Justice arises from the fusion of feeling and reason, demonstrating the unified nature of the self.
Proudhon argues that justice is a complex product of both instinct and intellect, not a simple innate sentiment.
“the man who takes possession of a field, and says, 'This field is mine,' will not be unjust so long as everyone else has an equal right of possession; nor will he be unjust, if, wishing to change his location, he exchanges this field for an equivalent. But if, putting another in his place, he says to him, 'Work for me while I rest,' he then becomes unjust, unassociated, unequal. He is a proprietor.”
Occupying land is not unjust if equal rights are preserved, but exploiting another's labor for personal gain without reciprocation is the essence of property and injustice.
Proudhon distinguishes between legitimate possession and exploitative property, defining the latter as inherently unequal and antisocial.