Note 648 — Chapter V · : PROUDHON AND THE SOCIALISM OF 1848

Organisation du Credit et de la Circulation, p. 131. Elsewhere: “To adopt Hegelian phraseology, the community is the first term in social development—the thesis; property the contradictory term—the antithesis. The third term—the synthesis—must be found before the solution can be considered complete.” (Propriété, 1er Mémoire, p. 202.) That term will be possession pure and simple—the right of property with no claim to unearned income. “Get rid of property, but retain the right of possession, and this very simple change of principle will result in an alteration of the laws, the method of government, and the character of a nation’s economic institutions. Evil of every kind will be entirely swept away.” Proudhon employed Hegelian terminology as early as 1840, four years before Karl Grün’s visit to Paris. For Proudhon’s relation to Grün see Sainte-Beuve’s P. J. Proudhon.