Key Arguments

• He declares 'No; there is no real superiority among men, since all talents and capacities are combined never in one individual,' insisting that each person has only 'special aptitudes which are limited and confined.'
• He describes the division of capacities as analogous to the division of social functions and persons: 'Capacities are to each other as functions and persons; who would dare to classify them in ranks?'
• He emphasizes the dependence of genius on society: 'The finest genius is, by the laws of his existence and development, the most dependent upon the society which creates him. Who would dare to make a god of the glorious child?'
• He quotes a marketplace Hercules—'“It is not strength which makes the man,” said a Hercules of the marketplace to the admiring crowd; “it is character.”'—and extends the lesson: 'It is not talent (which is also a force), it is not knowledge, it is not beauty which makes the man. It is heart, courage, will, virtue.'
• From this moral equality he infers: 'Now, if we are equal in that which makes us men, how can the accidental distribution of secondary faculties detract from our manhood?'
• He warns proletarians not to be overawed by privileged talents: 'Remember that privilege is naturally and inevitably the lot of the weak; and do not be misled by the fame which accompanies certain talents whose greatest merit consists in their rarity, and a long and toilsome apprenticeship.'
• He uses comparisons to relativize different skills: 'It is easier for M. Lamennais to recite a philippic, or sing a humanitarian ode after the Platonic fashion, than to discover a single useful truth; it is easier for an economist to apply the laws of production and distribution than to write ten lines in the style of M. Lamennais; it is easier for both to speak than to act.'
• He concludes by appealing directly to workers: 'You, then, who put your hands to the work, who alone truly create, why do you wish me to admit your inferiority?'—implying that productive labor is at least as dignified as celebrated intellectual or rhetorical talent.

Source Quotes

Has he not said, “The mind has no law; that which I believe today, I did not believe yesterday; I do not know that I shall believe it tomorrow”? No; there is no real superiority among men, since all talents and capacities are combined never in one individual. This man has the power of thought, that one imagination and style, still another industrial and commercial capacity.

This man has the power of thought, that one imagination and style, still another industrial and commercial capacity. By our very nature and education, we possess only special aptitudes which are limited and confined, and which become consequently more necessary as they gain in depth and strength. Capacities are to each other as functions and persons; who would dare to classify them in ranks?

By our very nature and education, we possess only special aptitudes which are limited and confined, and which become consequently more necessary as they gain in depth and strength. Capacities are to each other as functions and persons; who would dare to classify them in ranks? The finest genius is, by the laws of his existence and development, the most dependent upon the society which creates him.

Capacities are to each other as functions and persons; who would dare to classify them in ranks? The finest genius is, by the laws of his existence and development, the most dependent upon the society which creates him. Who would dare to make a god of the glorious child?

The lesson is a good one, proletaires; we should profit by it. It is not talent (which is also a force), it is not knowledge, it is not beauty which makes the man. It is heart, courage, will, virtue. Now, if we are equal in that which makes us men, how can the accidental distribution of secondary faculties detract from our manhood?

It is heart, courage, will, virtue. Now, if we are equal in that which makes us men, how can the accidental distribution of secondary faculties detract from our manhood? Remember that privilege is naturally and inevitably the lot of the weak; and do not be misled by the fame which accompanies certain talents whose greatest merit consists in their rarity, and a long and toilsome apprenticeship.

Now, if we are equal in that which makes us men, how can the accidental distribution of secondary faculties detract from our manhood? Remember that privilege is naturally and inevitably the lot of the weak; and do not be misled by the fame which accompanies certain talents whose greatest merit consists in their rarity, and a long and toilsome apprenticeship. It is easier for M.

Lamennais; it is easier for both to speak than to act. You, then, who put your hands to the work, who alone truly create, why do you wish me to admit your inferiority? But, what am I saying?

Key Concepts

• No; there is no real superiority among men, since all talents and capacities are combined never in one individual.
• By our very nature and education, we possess only special aptitudes which are limited and confined, and which become consequently more necessary as they gain in depth and strength.
• Capacities are to each other as functions and persons; who would dare to classify them in ranks?
• The finest genius is, by the laws of his existence and development, the most dependent upon the society which creates him.
• It is not talent (which is also a force), it is not knowledge, it is not beauty which makes the man. It is heart, courage, will, virtue.
• if we are equal in that which makes us men, how can the accidental distribution of secondary faculties detract from our manhood?
• Remember that privilege is naturally and inevitably the lot of the weak; and do not be misled by the fame which accompanies certain talents whose greatest merit consists in their rarity, and a long and toilsome apprenticeship.
• You, then, who put your hands to the work, who alone truly create, why do you wish me to admit your inferiority?

Context

Second Memoir, following his demolition of Lamennais’s philosophical claims; Proudhon turns to instruct proletarians that celebrated talents do not confer real superiority and that essential human equality rests on moral character rather than intellectual or artistic gifts.