Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

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Lore & Background

Proudhon was born in Besançon on 15 January 1809 at 23 Rue du Petit Battant. His father Claude-François worked as a brewer and cooper; his mother Catherine Simonin taught him to read, having him spell words by age three. As a boy he worked in the family tavern and spent time outdoors. In 1820 his mother secured a bursary of 120 francs a year to get him into the city college, but he could not afford books or shoes and was scorned by wealthier classmates. He apprenticed at a printing press in 1827, then transferred to a press owned by the family of schoolmate Antoine Gauthier. There he spent hours reading Christian literature and eventually rejected Christianity. In 1829 he supervised the printing of Charles Fourier's *Le Nouveau Monde Industriel et Sociétaire*, discussing social issues with Fourier. He formed a close friendship with Gustave Fallot, a scholar who offered financial help for Proudhon to study philosophy in Paris. Proudhon walked from Besançon to Paris, arriving in March at the Rue Mazarin. After Fallot fell ill with cholera and could no longer support him, Proudhon returned home. In 1838 he applied for the Suard Pension, a bursary to study at the Academy of Besançon, and was selected because his income was much lower than other candidates and the judges were impressed by his self-taught education.

Reader's Guide

Proudhon's first major work, *What Is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and Government*, published in 1840, contained his best-known assertion that "property is theft!" The book attracted the attention of French authorities and also drew the scrutiny of Karl Marx, who started a correspondence with Proudhon. The two influenced each other and met in Paris while Marx was exiled there. Their friendship ended when Marx responded to Proudhon's *The System of Economic Contradictions, or The Philosophy of Poverty* with *The Poverty of Philosophy*. The dispute became one of the sources of the split between the anarchist and Marxist wings of the International Working Men's Association. Proudhon favored workers' councils and associations or cooperatives as well as individual worker/peasant possession over private ownership or the nationalization of land and workplaces. He considered social revolution achievable in a peaceful manner. He unsuccessfully tried to create a national bank, to be funded by what became an abortive attempt at an income tax on capitalists and shareholders, which would have given interest-free loans. After the death of his follower Mikhail Bakunin, Proudhon's libertarian socialism diverged into individualist anarchism, collectivist anarchism, anarcho-communism and anarcho-syndicalism, with notable proponents such as Carlo Cafiero, Joseph Déjacque, Peter Kropotkin and Benjamin Tucker.

Did You Know?

• Proudhon taught himself Latin in order to better print books in the language.
• His mother had him spelling words by age three.
• He supervised the printing of Charles Fourier's *Le Nouveau Monde Industriel et Sociétaire* in 1829.
• He walked from Besançon to Paris to study philosophy with financial help from Gustave Fallot.
• Proudhon was tried for his 1842 work *Warning to Proprietors* but acquitted when the jury found they could not condemn a philosophy they could not understand.