Note 619 — Chapter V · : PROUDHON AND THE SOCIALISM OF 1848

Philosophie du Progrès, Œuvres, vol. xx, p. 19: “Growth is essential to thought, and truth or reality whether in nature or in human affairs is essentially historical, at one time advancing, at another receding, evolving slowly, but always undergoing some change.” In his Contradictions économiques he defines social science as “the systematised study of society, not merely as it was in the past or will be in the future, but as it is in the present in all its manifold appearances, for only by looking at the whole of its activities can we hope to discover intelligence and order.” (Vol. i, p. 43.) “If we apply this conception to the organisation of labour we cannot agree with the economists when they say that it is already completely organised, or with the socialists when they declare that it must be organised, but simply that it is gradually organising itself; that is, that the process of organisation has gone on since time immemorial and is still going on, and that it will continue to go on. Science should always be on the look-out for the results that have already been achieved or are on the point of realisation.” (Vol. i, p. 45.)