„Chiedo di vivere lavorando se no morrò combattendo.“
da Che cos'è la proprietà, 1840
Frasi di Pierre Joseph Proudhon
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Pierre Joseph Proudhon
Data di nascita: 15. Gennaio 1809
Data di morte: 19. Gennaio 1865
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon è stato un filosofo, sociologo, economista e anarchico francese.
È stato il primo ad attribuire un significato positivo alla parola "anarchia", che prima era utilizzata soltanto in senso dispregiativo, cioè nel senso di caos, disordine .
Frasi Pierre Joseph Proudhon
„Essere governato significa essere guardato a vista, ispezionato, spiato, diretto, legiferato, regolamentato, recintato, indottrinato, catechizzato, controllato, stimato, valutato, censurato, comandato, da parte di esseri che non hanno né il titolo, né la scienza, né la virtù. Essere governato vuol dire essere, ad ogni azione, ad ogni transazione, ad ogni movimento, annotato, registrato, censito, tariffato, timbrato, squadrato, postillato, ammonito, quotato, collettato, patentato, licenziato, autorizzato, impedito, riformato, raddrizzato, corretto. Vuol dire essere tassato, addestrato, taglieggiato, sfruttato, monopolizzato, concusso, spremuto, mistificato, derubato, e, alla minima resistenza, alla prima parola di lamento, represso, emendato, vilipeso, vessato, braccato, tartassato, accoppato, disarmato, ammanettato, imprigionato, fucilato, mitragliato, giudicato, condannato, deportato, sacrificato, venduto, tradito, e per giunta schernito, dileggiato, ingiuriato, disonorato, tutto con il pretesto della pubblica utilità e in nome dell'interesse generale. (da Idée générale de la Révolution au XIXe siècle“
1851), Paris, Rivière, 1923; trad. it. L'idea generale di rivoluzione nel XIX secolo, Firenze, Centro Editoriale Toscano, 2001.
„Chi parla di umanità vuol trarvi in inganno.“
Origine: Citato in Focus, n. 110, pag. 175.
„La teologia è la scienza dell'infinitamente assurdo.“
da Della giustizia nella Rivoluzione e nella Chiesa
„La scienza non ha fatto progressi che dopo aver eliminato Dio.“
da Studio di filologia sacra, 1838
„Dio è l'ombra della coscienza proiettata sul campo dell'immaginazione.“
da Della giustizia nella Rivoluzione e nella Chiesa
„AXIOM. — Property is the Right of Increase claimed by the Proprietor over any thing which he has stamped as his own.“
Origine: What is Property? (1840), Ch. IV
„All my political ideas boil down to a similar formula: political federation or decentralization.“
Du principe Fédératif [Principle of Federation] (1863)
Contesto: All my economic ideas as developed over twenty-five years can be summed up in the words: agricultural-industrial federation. All my political ideas boil down to a similar formula: political federation or decentralization.
„Of what consequence to you, reader, is my obscure individuality? I live, like you, in a century in which reason submits only to fact and to evidence. My name, like yours, is truth-seeker.“
Origine: What is Property? (1840), Ch. I: "Method Pursued in this Work. The Idea of a Revolution"
Contesto: Of what consequence to you, reader, is my obscure individuality? I live, like you, in a century in which reason submits only to fact and to evidence. My name, like yours, is truth-seeker. My mission is written in these words of the law: Speak without hatred and without fear; tell that which thou knowest! The work of our race is to build the temple of science, and this science includes man and Nature. Now, truth reveals itself to all; to-day to Newton and Pascal, tomorrow to the herdsman in the valley and the journeyman in the shop. Each one contributes his stone to the edifice; and, his task accomplished, disappears. Eternity precedes us, eternity follows us: between two infinites, of what account is one poor mortal that the century should inquire about him?
Disregard then, reader, my title and my character, and attend only to my arguments.
„To name a thing is easy: the difficulty is to discern it before its appearance.“
Origine: What is Property? (1840), Ch. I: "Method Pursued in this Work. The Idea of a Revolution"
Contesto: To name a thing is easy: the difficulty is to discern it before its appearance. In giving expression to the last stage of an idea, — an idea which permeates all minds, which to-morrow will be proclaimed by another if I fail to announce it to-day, — I can claim no merit save that of priority of utterance. Do we eulogize the man who first perceives the dawn?
Yes: all men believe and repeat that equality of conditions is identical with equality of rights; that property and robbery are synonymous terms; that every social advantage accorded, or rather usurped, in the name of superior talent or service, is iniquity and extortion. All men in their hearts, I say, bear witness to these truths; they need only to be made to understand it.
„All men in their hearts, I say, bear witness to these truths; they need only to be made to understand it.“
Origine: What is Property? (1840), Ch. I: "Method Pursued in this Work. The Idea of a Revolution"
Contesto: To name a thing is easy: the difficulty is to discern it before its appearance. In giving expression to the last stage of an idea, — an idea which permeates all minds, which to-morrow will be proclaimed by another if I fail to announce it to-day, — I can claim no merit save that of priority of utterance. Do we eulogize the man who first perceives the dawn?
Yes: all men believe and repeat that equality of conditions is identical with equality of rights; that property and robbery are synonymous terms; that every social advantage accorded, or rather usurped, in the name of superior talent or service, is iniquity and extortion. All men in their hearts, I say, bear witness to these truths; they need only to be made to understand it.
„I will explain therefore how, studying in the silence of my heart, and far from every human consideration, the mystery of social revolutions, God, the great unknown, has become for me an hypothesis, — I mean a necessary dialectical tool.“
Introduction
The Philosophy of Misery (1846)
Contesto: Tormented by conflicting feelings, I appealed to reason; and it is reason which, amid so many dogmatic contradictions, now forces the hypothesis upon me. A priori dogmatism, applying itself to God, has proved fruitless: who knows whither the hypothesis, in its turn, will lead us?
I will explain therefore how, studying in the silence of my heart, and far from every human consideration, the mystery of social revolutions, God, the great unknown, has become for me an hypothesis, — I mean a necessary dialectical tool.
„Now, if we are honest truth-seekers, we shall avoid disputes about words.“
Origine: What is Property? (1840), Ch. V: "Psychological Explanation of the Idea of Justice and Injustice, and the Determination of the Principle of Government and of Right," Part 2: Characteristics of Communism and of Property
Contesto: Communism is inequality, but not as property is. Property is the exploitation of the weak by the strong. Communism is the exploitation of the strong by the weak. In property, inequality of conditions is the result of force, under whatever name it be disguised: physical and mental force; force of events, chance, fortune; force of accumulated property, &c. In communism, inequality springs from placing mediocrity on a level with excellence. This damaging equation is repellent to the conscience, and causes merit to complain; for, although it may be the duty of the strong to aid the weak, they prefer to do it out of generosity, — they never will endure a comparison. Give them equal opportunities of labor, and equal wages, but never allow their jealousy to be awakened by mutual suspicion of unfaithfulness in the performance of the common task.
Communism is oppression and slavery. Man is very willing to obey the law of duty, serve his country, and oblige his friends; but he wishes to labor when he pleases, where he pleases, and as much as he pleases. He wishes to dispose of his own time, to be governed only by necessity, to choose his friendships, his recreation, and his discipline; to act from judgment, not by command; to sacrifice himself through selfishness, not through servile obligation. Communism is essentially opposed to the free exercise of our faculties, to our noblest desires, to our deepest feelings. Any plan which could be devised for reconciling it with the demands of the individual reason and will would end only in changing the thing while preserving the name. Now, if we are honest truth-seekers, we shall avoid disputes about words.
Thus, communism violates the sovereignty of the conscience, and equality: the first, by restricting spontaneity of mind and heart, and freedom of thought and action; the second, by placing labor and laziness, skill and stupidity, and even vice and virtue on an equality in point of comfort. For the rest, if property is impossible on account of the desire to accumulate, communism would soon become so through the desire to shirk.
