What is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government

From the opening

Property is the Right of Increase claimed by the Proprietor over any thing which he has stamped as his own.

SECOND PROPOSITION. Property is Impossible, because, wherever it exists, Production costs more than it is worth.

THIRD PROPOSITION. Property is Impossible, because, with a given Capital, Production is proportional to Labor, not to Property.

FIFTH PROPOSITION. Property is Impossible, because, if it exists, Society devours itself.

SIXTH PROPOSITION. Property is Impossible, because it is the Mother of Tyranny.

SEVENTH PROPOSITION. Property is Impossible, because, in consuming its Receipts, it loses them; in hoarding them, it nullifies them; and, in using them as Capital, it turns them against Production.

EIGHTH PROPOSITION. Property is Impossible, because its Power of Accumulation is infinite, and is exercised only over Finite Quantities.

TENTH PROPOSITION. Property is Impossible, because it is the Negation of Equality.

CHAPTER V. PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPOSITION OF THE IDEA OF JUSTICE AND IN JUSTICE, AND A DETERMINATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF GOVERNMENT AND OF RIGHT.

% 1. Of the Moral Sense in Man and the Animals. % 2. Of the First and Second Degrees of Sociability. % 3. Of the Third Degree of Sociability.

PART I 1. % 1. Of the Causes of our Mistakes. The Origin of Property. % 2. Characteristics of Communism and of Property. % 3. Determination of the Third Form of Society. Conclusion.

The correspondence [1] of P. J. Proudhon, the first volumes of which we publish to-day, has been collected since his death by the faithful and intelligent labors of his daughter, aided by a few friends. It was incomplete when submitted to Sainte Beuve, but the portion with which the illustrious academician became acquainted was sufficient to allow him to estimate it as a whole with that soundness of judgment which characterized him as a literary critic.

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