What Is Property?P.-J. Proudhon

What Is Property?

by P.-J. Proudhon · first published 2015

19mentions
3recommended by
11HN commenters
2012–2025first – last mentioned

27% recommend73% neutral

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What Hacker News says

  • ue_ · Feb 13, 2017 · Recommends

    …such as sweatshops. Furthermore in order to support those who do not work, one must pay taxes, which cannot well co-exist with the rights of freedom, equality and dubiously property. Read Proudhon's "What is Property?" for something interesting. Here's an interesting video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNxSHcQqiMc

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  • ue_ · Mar 20, 2017 · Recommends

    Proudhon's "What is Property?" is a good read on this. Private property is theft from society.

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  • ue_ · May 13, 2017 · Recommends

    …property, the concept of possession, and the abolishment of the former should be discussed more, though it's strange that it's often taken for a given in political discussions, despite the work of Proudhon (What is Property?) and further by Bakunin, Kropotkin and Marx (who was very much in admiration of and inspired by Proudhon's book). If anyone is interested in reading the book, which I can only describe as captivating…

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  • ue_ · Feb 23, 2017 · Recommends

    …if not private property owners. I see these as one and the same organ of proprietorship, staking claim based in false premises and contradicting with the principles of justice and equality (Proudhon's 'What is Property?' is interesting on this topic, as well as Kropotkin's 'The Conquest of Bread' and many of Marx and Engels' works.) >Capitalism defends everyone's right not to be forced into slavery by threat of force.…

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  • clarnet · Aug 3, 2012 · Recommends

    …way better fitted here. Of course, he's another non-authority thinker but with a quite different perspective and way to think the world, the society and men. Take some of your time at gutenberg.org: - What is Property? by P.-J. Proudhon http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/360 - System of Economical Contradictions; or, the Philosophy of Misery by P.-J. Proudhon http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/444

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  • ue_ · Jan 19, 2017 · Recommends

    >Property rights are the foundation of civil society. For the exact opposite view of property, that it is in fact the sign of barabrism and the law of the jungle, read Proudhon's "What is Property?".

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  • ue_ · May 26, 2017 · Recommends

    …certain piece of land and defend it with violence? And what of the concept of rights in general? If one wants an alternative view of the concept of property versus possession, it's worth reading Proudhon's What Is Property?, which is a thrilling and informative read of the anarchist view, despite being a 19th century work. https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/proudho...

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  • seanp2k2 · Dec 9, 2023 · Recommends

    I’d highly recommend reading the 1840 banger * What Is Property? or, An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government* by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon of Property is theft! fame.

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  • sudosysgen · Jul 22, 2020 · Mentions

    …unjustified hierarchy also led to his rejection of capitalism on grounds of unjustified hierarchy. Instead, he was a mutualist. You know, the political economy for which one of it's foundational texts is What is property, which coined the slogan : "La propriété, c'est le vol", by Proudhon. Bastiat attempted to use this essentially anarchist analysis of the state, but exempt private property from it by inventing some…

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  • orblivion · Apr 12, 2019 · Mentions

    …at least a discussion to be had. I feel like I've heard some convincing arguments but they're not coming to me now. But if you have the patience for it (I didn't even finish it), you might check out "What is Property" by Proudhon. He lays out a philosophy called Mutualism that sort of has socialist ethics, but is still somewhat market based in the end. He enumerates all of the assumptions he sees as underlying private…

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  • chm · Jun 12, 2015 · Mentions

    I recently bought Proudhon's "What is Property?". I'm sure it's going to be an interesting read.

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  • ue_ · May 24, 2017 · Mentions

    …remember that natural monopolies can very easily form, and that the tyranny of property ownership isn't much better than the tyranny of the state granting various benefits to property owners. Proudhon in What is Property goes into this and Oscar Wilde talks about it in his essay The Soul of Man Under Socialism. Why is the crony vs 'not crony' distinction useful, and in what ways would a 'pure' capitalist society alleviate…

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  • …accounts also because it's a finite natural resource, in some sense still only given only by permission of the state, which represents the people (or it is supposed to do so anyway). From Proudhon's What Is Property? (1840): >Let us complete the argument of M. Ch. Comte. A man who should be prohibited from walking in the highways, from resting in the fields, from taking shelter in caves, from lighting fires, from…

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  • icebraining · Jan 10, 2014 · Mentions

    It has been discussed extensively by left libertarians since the 1800s (most famously by Proudhon's What Is Property?). But most right-wingers consider property something like a god-given right (usually called "natural rights"), which makes discussion as impossible as trying to convince an young-earth creationist of…

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  • ue_ · Jul 12, 2017 · Mentions

    …hyperbolic to say that we'd have world peace and abundance just by their abandonment. More broadly the concept of property as a whole ought to come into question if we wish to go that far. Proudhon's essay What is Property? and Kropotkin's The Conquest of Bread shed light on this debate, making the case not for the sharing of private property by all but rather the very abolition of the concept itself.

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