What is Property?

VIII

To summarize all these data under a general expression: What is the principle of inheritance? What are the foundations of inequality? What is property?

Such is, gentlemen, the subject of the memoir that I address to you today.

If I have correctly grasped the object of your thought; if I bring to light an undeniable truth, but one which, for causes I dare say I have explained, has long been misunderstood; if, by an infallible method of investigation, I establish the dogma of the equality of conditions; if I determine the principle of civil law, the essence of justice, and the form of society; if I annihilate property forever: it is to you, gentlemen, that all the glory belongs; it is to your help and your inspirations that I owe it.

The thought behind this work is the application of method to the problems of philosophy: any other intention is foreign and even insulting to me.

I have spoken with mediocre esteem of jurisprudence; I had the right to do so: but I would be unjust if I did not separate from this so-called science the men who cultivate it. Devoted to arduous and austere studies, worthy in all respects of the esteem of their fellow citizens for their knowledge and eloquence, our jurists deserve only one reproach: that of an excessive deference to arbitrary laws.

I have pursued the economists with merciless criticism: as for them, I confess that in general I do not like them. The arrogance and vacuity of their writings, their impertinent pride, and their unqualifiable blunders have revolted me. Whoever knows them and forgives them, let him read them.

I have expressed a severe censure regarding the teaching Christian Church; I had to. This censure results from the facts that I demonstrate: why did the Church make pronouncements on what it did not understand? The Church has erred in dogma and in morality; physical and mathematical evidence testifies against it. It may be a fault of mine to say so; but it is certainly a misfortune for Christendom that it is true. To restore religion, gentlemen, one must condemn the Church.