| Revision as of 20:47, 25 July 2008 editSkomorokh (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers59,990 edits no need to refer to Branden then← Previous edit | Latest revision as of 12:39, 6 August 2024 edit undoCzar (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Administrators134,510 edits remove the primary sources, per cleanup tag, and there's no substance left in the article apart from a description of the concept along the lines of what's already in the Proudhon article · Join the anarchism cleanup driveTag: New redirect | ||
| (216 intermediate revisions by more than 100 users not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| #REDIRECT ] {{R from related topic}} | |||
| {{anarchism}} | |||
| '''Property is theft!''' (]: ''La propriété, c'est le vol!'') is a slogan coined by ] ] in his 1840 book '']''. | |||
| {{bquote|If I were asked to answer the following question: ''What is ]?'' and I should answer in one word, ''It is ]!'', my meaning would be understood at once. No extended argument would be required . . . Why, then, to this other question: ''What is ]?'' may I not likewise answer, ''It is ]!'', without the certainty of being misunderstood; the second proposition being no other than a transformation of the first?|||Pierre-Joseph Proudhon|'']''{{Ref_label|A|I|none}} }} | |||
| By "property," Proudhon referred to the ] concept of the ''] of property'' — the right of the proprietor to do with his ] as he pleases, "to use and abuse," so long as in the end he submits to state-sanctioned title, and he contrasted the supposed ] with the rights (which he considered valid) of ], ], and ]. | |||
| ==Literal contradiction== | |||
| ], although initially favourable to Proudhon's work, later criticised, among other things, the expression "property is theft" as ] and unnecessarily confusing, writing that "since “theft” as a forcible violation of property presupposes the existence of property" and condemning Proudhon for entangling himself in "all sorts of fantasies, obscure even to himself, about true bourgeois property."<ref name=marx1/> In a 1963 article, ] scholar ], used the phrase's literal self-refutation as his prime example of the fallacy of the stolen concept: "f no property is rightfully owned, that is, if nothing is property, there can be no such concept as “theft”…to use the concept “theft” while denying the validity of the concept of “property,” is to use “theft” as a concept to which one has no logical right—that is, as a stolen concept".<ref> by ] - originally published in ''The Objectivist Newsletter'' in January 1963.</ref> | |||
| Proudhon was aware of the literal contradiction involved in the phrase; being inclined towards the use of ], he also declared in '']'' that "property is impossible", "property is despotism" and "property is freedom".{{page number}} A slightly less literal reading of the phrase makes his meaning clear.{{specify}}<ref>], ''Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements''. Broadview Press, 2004; see e.g. page 13</ref> As 20th century anarchist scholar ] explains in ''Anarchism: Arguments For and Against'', Proudhon was using different definitions of "property" in the phrase "property is theft" – the property doing the thieving, and the property being thieved from. The property that is theft is private property, whereas the pre-existing concept of property that allows Proudhon to use the concept of "theft" is not the same property, but people's natural inheritance.<ref>{{cite book | last = Meltzer | first = Albert |authorlink=Albert Meltzer| title = Anarchism: Arguments for and against | publisher = ] | location = Stirling | year = 2000 | isbn = 1873176570 |pages=pp. 19–20}}</ref> | |||
| ==Similar phrases== | |||
| ] had previously written, in his ''Philosophical Researches on the Right of Property'' (''Recherches philosophiques sur le droit de propriété et le vol''), "Exclusive property is a robbery in nature."<ref name=curiosities>William Shepard Walsh, '''', p. 923</ref> ] would later write in a 1865 letter to a contemporary that Proudhon had taken the slogan from Warville,<ref name=marx1>], "", from ''Marx Engels Selected Works, Volume 2'', first published in ''Der Social-Demokrat'', Nos. 16, 17 and 18, February 1, 3 and 5, 1865</ref> although this is contested by subsequent scholarship.<ref>Robert L. Hoffman, ''Revolutionary Justice: The Social and Political Theory of P.J. Proudhon'', (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1972), pp. 46-48.</ref> | |||
| Similar phrases also appear in the works of ], who taught that ''superfluum quod tenes tu furaris'' (the superfluous property which you hold you have stolen), and ], who wrote:{{fix|text=where?}} "In the last analysis all property is theft."<ref name=curiosities/> | |||
| == Footnotes == | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| '''<small>I</small>.''' {{Note_label|A|I|none}} This translation by ] renders "''c'est le vol''" as "it is robbery," although the slogan is typically rendered in English as "property is theft." | |||
| </div> | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{Reflist}} | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
Latest revision as of 12:39, 6 August 2024
Redirect to:
- To a related topic: This is a redirect to an article about a similar topic.
- Redirects from related topics are different than redirects from related words, because a related topic is more likely to warrant a full and detailed description in the target article. If this redirect's subject is notable, then also tag it with {{R with possibilities}} and {{R printworthy}}.