19th Century · English
What is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government
What is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government (1840), by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Translated by Benjamin R. Tucker. From the Marxists Internet Archive.
Chapters
- 01Prefaceprose
- 02Chapter Iprose
- 03Property considered as a Natural Right. — Occupation and Civil Law as Efficient Bases of Property. Definitions.prose
- 04§ 1. — Property as a Natural Right.prose
- 05§ 2. — Occupation, as the Title to Property.prose
- 06§ 3. — Civil Law as the Foundation and Sanction of Property.prose
- 07Labor as the Efficient Cause of the Domain of Property.prose
- 08§ 1. — The Land cannot be Appropriated.prose
- 09§ 2. — Universal Consent no Justification of Property.prose
- 10§ 3. — Prescription gives no Title to Property.prose
- 11§ 4. — Labor — That Labor has no Inherent Power to appropriate Natural Wealth.prose
- 12§ 5. — That Labor leads to Equality of Property.prose
- 13§ 6. — That in Society all Wages are Equal.prose
- 14§ 7. — That Inequality of Powers is the Necessary Condition of Equality of Fortunes.prose
- 15§ 8. — That, from the Stand-point of Justice, Labor destroys Property.prose
- 16That Property is Impossible.prose
- 17Property Is Physically and Mathematically Impossible.prose
- 18First Proposition. Property is impossible, because it demands Something for Nothing.prose
- 19Second Proposition. Property is impossible because wherever it exists Production costs more than it is worth.prose
- 20Third Proposition. Property is impossible, because, with a given capital, Production is proportional to labor, not to prprose
- 21Fourth Proposition. Property is impossible, because it is Homicide.prose
- 22Fifth Proposition. Property is impossible, because, if it exists, Society devours itself.prose
- 23Appendix to the Fifth Proposition.prose
- 24Sixth Proposition. Property is impossible, because it is the Mother of Tyranny.prose
- 25Seventh Proposition. Property is impossible, because, in consuming its Receipts, it loses them; in hoarding them, it nulprose
- 26Eighth Proposition. Property is impossible, because its power of Accumulation is infinite, and is exercised only over fiprose
- 27Ninth Proposition. Property is impossible, because it is powerless against Property.prose
- 28Tenth Proposition. Property is impossible, because it is the Negation of equality.prose
- 29Chapter Vprose
- 30Letter to M. Blanquiprose