Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon:

(Besançon, 15 January 1809 – Passy (Seine) near Paris, 16 January 1865).
French self-taught economist, sociologist and theorist of socialism who is considered one of the first anarchist thinkers. Proudhon was the first person to call himself an anarchist and he introduced the word anarchism in 1840. He opposed authoritarian socialism and capitalism. He advocated instead a cooperative society, without government. Proudhon believed that anarchism should be achieved peacefully. Proudhon had great influence on Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin. Besides being a theorist, Proudhon was also a man of practice. He tried to set up a bank that would grant interest-free loans and laid the foundations of a mutual aid system whose principles are still applied in the insurance world today (see also Peter Kropotkin’s book Mutual Aid).

Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1865) / Gustave Courbet – Photo wikipedia.org

Always the flag of freedom served to cover despotism.

Photo: đź‘€ Mabel Amber

There is only happiness in freedom and greatness in growing freedom.

Photo: citations.quest-france.fr. Remark: The statement reflects Proudhon’s belief in progress through freedom, whereby he saw both individual and collective emancipation as essential to human development and happiness.

It is not about killing individual freedom but about socializing it.

Image: Peter van Geest AI. Meaning: Proudhon explicitly opposed state centralism and the form of socialism that entails state ownership and bureaucracy. He saw the state—even a democratic one—as often as tyrannical as a monarchy. For him, “socializing” also meant: voluntary association, ownership based on use/possession (not private accumulation), cooperatives, direct economic democracy, free agreement (contract) between equal producers/consumers. For Proudhon, freedom—both individual and collective—is not something to be won by force, but something that arises from voluntary, reciprocal relationships between people. Source: The System of Economic Contradictions or The Philosophy of Poverty (original French: Système des contradictions économiques, ou Philosophie de la misère) by Proudhon.

 

 

 

 

Door Pieter

Mensenmens, zoon, echtgenoot, vader, opa. Spiritueel, echter niet religieus. Ik hou van golf, wandelen, lezen en de natuur in veel opzichten. Onderzoeker, nieuwsgierig, geen fan van de mainstream media (MSM).

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