WHAT IS PROPERTY?

        DETAILED CONTENTS

       

           P. J. PROUDHON:  HIS LIFE AND HIS WORKS

           PREFACE

           FIRST MEMOIR

           CHAPTER I.

           METHOD PURSUED IN THIS WORK.—THE IDEA OF A REVOLUTION
       

           CHAPTER II.

           PROPERTY CONSIDERED AS A NATURAL RIGHT.—OCCUPATION AND CIVIL LAW
           AS EFFICIENT BASES OF PROPERTY.—DEFINITIONS
           % 1.  Property as a Natural Right.
           % 2.  Occupation as the Title to Property.
           % 3.  Civil Law as the Foundation and Sanction of Property.
       

           CHAPTER III.

           LABOR AS THE EFFICIENT CAUSE OF THE DOMAIN OF PROPERTY
           % 1.  The Land cannot be appropriated.
           % 2.  Universal Consent no Justification of Property.
           % 3.  Prescription gives no Title to Property.
           % 4.  Labor.—That Labor has no Inherent Power to appropriate
                    Natural Wealth.
           % 5.  That Labor leads to Equality of Property.
           % 6.  That in Society all Wages are Equal.
           % 7.  That Inequality of Powers is the Necessary Condition of
                    Equality of Fortunes.
           % 8.  That, from the stand-point of Justice, Labor destroys
                    Property.
       

           CHAPTER IV.

           THAT PROPERTY IS IMPOSSIBLE

           DEMONSTRATION.  AXIOM.

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

           FIRST PROPOSITION.
           Property is Impossible, because it demands Something for Nothing.

           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.

           FOURTH PROPOSITION.
           Property is Impossible, because it is Homicide.

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

           Appendix to the Fifth Proposition.

           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.

           NINTH PROPOSITION
           Property is Impossible, because it is powerless against Property.

           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.

           PART 1.

           % 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.
       

           SECOND MEMOIR
           LETTER TO M. BLANQUI ON PROPERTY