System of Economical Contradictions; Or, The Philosophy of Misery
- Language:
- English
- Translation:
- Benjamin R. Tucker
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~170,000 words · 798 passages
Cite this work
- APAProudhon. (n.d.). System of Economical Contradictions; Or, The Philosophy of Misery. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/proudhon/system-of-economical-contradictions-or-the-philosophy-of-misery
- MLAProudhon. "System of Economical Contradictions; Or, The Philosophy of Misery." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/proudhon/system-of-economical-contradictions-or-the-philosophy-of-misery.
- ChicagoProudhon. System of Economical Contradictions; Or, The Philosophy of Misery. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/proudhon/system-of-economical-contradictions-or-the-philosophy-of-misery.
What it is about
The 1846 book in which Proudhon argues that every economic institution — the division of labour, machinery, competition, credit, property — produces at once a good and the evil that is its shadow.
Context and history
The subtitle is 'The Philosophy of Poverty'. The argument runs as a series: the division of labour multiplies production and at the same time stunts the worker; machinery relieves effort and at the same time throws men out of work; competition cheapens and at the same time ruins. Proudhon does not conclude that these should be abolished, but that the balance of each pair must be found — and that is exactly the position Marx attacked the following year in 'The Poverty of Philosophy', inverting his title. The two books repay reading one after the other, and both are in the corpus: this is the first great internal argument of socialism, and what is at stake — whether contradictions are resolved or balanced — is still argued about.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Scanned with OmniPage Professional OCR software donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. Contact Mike Lough <Mikel@caere.com> THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM SYSTEM OF ECONOMICAL CONTRADICTIONS OR, THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISERY. BY P. J. PROUDHON Destruam et aedificabo. Deuteronomy: c. 32. VOLUME FIRST. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I. OF THE ECONOMIC SCIENCE % 1. Opposition between FACT and RIGHT in Social Economy % 2. Inadequacy of Theories and Criticisms CHAPTER II. OF VALUE % 1. Opposition of Value in USE and Value in EXCHANGE % 2. Constitution of Value; Definition of Wealth % 3. Application of the Law of Proportionality of Values CHAPTER III. ECONOMIC EVOLUTIONS.--FIRST PERIOD.--THE DIVISION OF LABOR % 1. Antagonistic Effects of the Principle of Division % 2. Impotence of Palliatives.--MM. Blanqui, Chevalier, Dunoyer, Rossi, and Passy CHAPTER IV. SECOND PERIOD.--MACHINERY % 1. Of the Function of Machinery in its Relations to Liberty % 2. Machinery's Contradiction.--Origin of Capital and Wages % 3. Of Preservatives against the Disastrous Influence of Machinery CHAPTER V. THIRD PERIOD.--COMPETITION % 1. Necessity of Competition % 2. Subversive Effects of Competition, and the Destruction of Liberty thereby % 3. Remedies against Competition CHAPTER VI. FOURTH PERIOD.--MONOPOLY % 1. Necessity of Monopoly % 2. The Disasters in Labor and the Perversion of Ideas caused by Monopoly CHAPTER VII. FIFTH PERIOD.--POLICE, OR TAXATION % 1. Synthetic Idea of the Tax. Point of Departure and Development of this Idea % 2. Antinomy of the Tax % 3. Disastrous and Inevitable Consequences of the Tax. (Provisions, Sumptuary Laws, Rural and Industrial Police, Patents,Trade-Marks, etc.) CHAPTER VIII. OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MAN AND OF GOD, UNDER THE LAW OF CONTRADICTION, OR A SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE % 1. The Culpability of Man.--Exposition of the Myth of the Fall % 2. Exposition of the Myth of Providence.