I am reading “The Anarchic Order” by Anselme Bellagarrigue and “The Sociology of Pierre Joseph Proudhon” by Constance Margaret Hall.
I am reading “The Anarchic Order” by Anselme Bellagarrigue and “The Sociology of Pierre Joseph Proudhon” by Constance Margaret Hall.
How’s the book?
I’m enjoying The Anarchic Order. All three writings are available online from The Anarchist Library, but these translations are original and I like having a physical book sometimes. He was a contemporary of Proudhon and Stirner and was an early proponent of individualist anarchism, with similar arguments to Benjamin Tucker. I consider the anarchist manifesto in this book to be a better introduction to individualist anarchism than anything by Tucker. He is critical of Proudhon and lumps him in with other socialists, but doesn’t engage in a detailed critique of specific other thinkers so I need to spend more time comparing his anti-statism to Proudhon’s to understand why.
The Sociology of Proudhon is good, although I am only starting that. The biography of Proudhon was interesting, and explained his interest in theology that comes up a lot in his writings. Proudhon’s ideas about history being essentially chaotic but guided centrally towards man’s moral nature reminded me of something similar Albert Camus said in the Rebel.