What Is Property? · Question
How does What Is Property? develop the theme of Critique of Law and Government?
Answer
What Is Property? by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon develops Critique of Law and Government across the chapters the companion marks for this theme.
Argues that civil law and government are tools that sanctify property and oppression, rather than protect natural rights, and that true society requires the abolition of man's rule over man.
Proudhon's legal troubles, his critique of civil law as a foundation of property, and his advocacy for federalism as a check on state power are highlighted.
Proudhon critiques the authority of man over man, questioning the justice of despotism, civil inequality, and the role of law in upholding property.
The chapter critiques legal definitions of property from Roman law to the Napoleonic Code, exposing their role in legitimizing absolute dominion.
Evidence in the book
- P. J. Proudhon
Proudhon's legal troubles, his critique of civil law as a foundation of property, and his advocacy for federalism as a check on state power are highlighted.
- I
Proudhon critiques the authority of man over man, questioning the justice of despotism, civil inequality, and the role of law in upholding property.
- II
The chapter critiques legal definitions of property from Roman law to the Napoleonic Code, exposing their role in legitimizing absolute dominion.
- § 1: Property as a Natural Right
Criticizes the Declaration of Rights, the tax system, and the state for defending property rather than natural rights.
- § 2: Occupation, as the Title to Property
Proudhon critiques legal and philosophical justifications of property, including those from Cicero, Grotius, and Reid, as failing to establish legitimate property rights.
- § 3: Civil Law as the Foundation and Sanction of Property
Proudhon attacks civil law for creating property as a fiction, outside natural justice, and for sanctioning selfishness.
- III
Proudhon criticizes the Civil Code and legal system for contradicting the labor theory of property.
- § 2: Universal Consent No Justification of Property
Proudhon rejects the legitimacy of a social contract that would justify property, calling it null in justice.
