Liberty, as the synthesis of communism and property, is defined by Proudhon as social equality, anarchy (rule of law/necessity, not personal will), infinite variety of individual wills within legal limits, and proportionality in the moral‑intellectual sphere; it is the natural form of human society and the formula of man’s social nature.

By Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, from What Is Property?

Key Arguments

  • He insists that his synthesis is not eclectic compromise but analytic selection of true elements: 'In determining the nature of liberty, we do not unite communism and property indiscriminately; such a process would be absurd eclecticism. We search by analysis for those elements in each which are true, and in harmony with the laws of Nature and society, disregarding the rest altogether.'
  • He claims this yields 'an adequate expression of the natural form of human society⁠—in one word, liberty.'
  • He gives four succinct characterizations of liberty: 'Liberty is equality, because liberty exists only in society; and in the absence of equality there is no society. Liberty is anarchy, because it does not admit the government of the will, but only the authority of the law; that is, of necessity. Liberty is infinite variety, because it respects all wills within the limits of the law. Liberty is proportionality, because it allows the utmost latitude to the ambition for merit, and the emulation of glory.'
  • He connects liberty to his earlier psychological account of sociability, justice, and équité, making it the formula of social nature: 'Man’s social nature becoming justice through reflection, équité through the classification of capacities, and having liberty for its formula, is the true basis of morality⁠—the principle and regulator of all our actions.'
  • He presents liberty as the 'universal motor' that religion fortifies and egotism supplants, and which 'pure reason never can fill', suggesting that liberty as social justice is the deep motive force behind morality and social life.

Source Quotes

This third form of society, the synthesis of communism and property, we will call liberty.36 In determining the nature of liberty, we do not unite communism and property indiscriminately; such a process would be absurd eclecticism. We search by analysis for those elements in each which are true, and in harmony with the laws of Nature and society, disregarding the rest altogether; and the result gives us an adequate expression of the natural form of human society⁠—in one word, liberty. Liberty is equality, because liberty exists only in society; and in the absence of equality there is no society.
We search by analysis for those elements in each which are true, and in harmony with the laws of Nature and society, disregarding the rest altogether; and the result gives us an adequate expression of the natural form of human society⁠—in one word, liberty. Liberty is equality, because liberty exists only in society; and in the absence of equality there is no society. Liberty is anarchy, because it does not admit the government of the will, but only the authority of the law; that is, of necessity.
Liberty is equality, because liberty exists only in society; and in the absence of equality there is no society. Liberty is anarchy, because it does not admit the government of the will, but only the authority of the law; that is, of necessity. Liberty is infinite variety, because it respects all wills within the limits of the law.
Liberty is anarchy, because it does not admit the government of the will, but only the authority of the law; that is, of necessity. Liberty is infinite variety, because it respects all wills within the limits of the law. Liberty is proportionality, because it allows the utmost latitude to the ambition for merit, and the emulation of glory.
Liberty is infinite variety, because it respects all wills within the limits of the law. Liberty is proportionality, because it allows the utmost latitude to the ambition for merit, and the emulation of glory. We can now say, in the words of M.

Key Concepts

  • the result gives us an adequate expression of the natural form of human society⁠—in one word, liberty.
  • Liberty is equality, because liberty exists only in society; and in the absence of equality there is no society.
  • Liberty is anarchy, because it does not admit the government of the will, but only the authority of the law; that is, of necessity.
  • Liberty is infinite variety, because it respects all wills within the limits of the law.
  • Liberty is proportionality, because it allows the utmost latitude to the ambition for merit, and the emulation of glory.

Context

Part II, § 3, immediately after defining the four principles of the new society, where Proudhon compresses his social ideal into a fourfold definition of liberty and integrates it with his earlier theory of sociability, justice, and équité.