Proudhon: What is Property?

An introduction to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's 1840 book, What is Property?

Pierre Joseph Proudhon was the first self-declared anarchist. He wrote What is Property in 1840. He was not a wide-ranging and difficult writer, he wasn’t a system builder, he was critical of utopianisms, and was fascinated with contradictions.

For Proudhon, The ideal society was a contractual one – where individuals are free to arrange their relationships under conditions of justice. But for justice to flourish, its laws had to be known to all.

Proudhon looks at the justifications for property - occupation and labor - and argues that they both really only justify possession.

Proudhon ultimately argues that all possession has a dual nature. A part that is ours by virtue of needing it for the flourishing of our own liberty, and a part that is society’s who have contributed to its value, and still has a right to it based on need. Another way of saying this might be that everything is only borrowed.

His theory of property can be summed up by his phrase:

‘‘The right to product is exclusive – jus in re ; ¬the right to means is common – jus ad rem’

Proudhon is one of the most important figures in the history of socialist and radical thought.

As George Woodcock writes he argues that ‘property is incompatible with justice, because in practice in represents the exclusion of the worker from his equal rights to enjoy the fruits of society.'

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