What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government (French: Qu'est-ce que la propriété?) is the title of a book (written in French) by the 19th century French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Anarchism is a political view derived from the Greek αναρχία (without archons (rulers)). Thus anarchism, in its most general meaning, is opposing to rulers. ... Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (pronounced [] in BrE, [] in French) (January 15, 1809 – January 19, 1865) was a French anarchist of the 19th century. ...

In the book, Proudhon most famously declared that “property is theft”. Taken at face value, this slogan appears to be an oxymoron, because theft, by definition, means depriving someone of his property. Property is theft! is a slogan coined by the French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his book What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right of Government. ... An oxymoron (plural oxymora) (noun) is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms (e. ...

Nevertheless, Proudhon believed that the complete elimination of every kind of private property was impractical. Therefore he argued that the result of an individual's labor is his property. However, he opposed unused land being regarded as property, believing that land can only be rightfully possessed by use or occupation (which he called "possession") He further argued that such private property can prevent the tragedy of the commons, where communal property is used excessively (e.g., overgrazing by domesticated animals). The tragedy of the commons is a metaphor used to illustrate the conflict between individual interests and the common good. ...

Some contemporary anarchists use the terms personal property and private property to signify the difference that Proudhon meant, and this differentiation is key to the anarchist critique of capitalism. Others take private property to mean the property of an individual. Personal property is a type of property. ... This page deals with property as ownership rights. ... This page was created to further explain the anarchist objections to capitalism and is not meant to fairly present two sides of a debate. ...

See also

• Property law

Property law is the law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property (land as distinct from personal or moveable possessions) and in personal property, within the common law legal system. ...

External links

The text to What Is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government can be found in various places:

• Free eBook of What is Property? at Project Gutenberg
• http://dhm.best.vwh.net/archives/proudhon-property-is-theft.html - a modifed format of the Project Gutenberg's e-text, with the text split into smaller segments.
• What is Property? at Marxists.org
• Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia Library