Proudhon - A Biography

THE MAN OF AFFAIRS
how they exist, how they live, work and react on each other— in
other words, their relationships. And the law of these relation­
ships is the Serial Law, by which the objects of study can be
grouped in ‘series.’ The series has no concern with cause or
substance, but is a principle of order and hence the very basis of
science. Each being, each thing, is in itself a series; in the human
body the unit o f the series is the organ, in a society it is the indi­
vidual. T o discover a series is to find a principle of order, an
essential factor for understanding an object in its relationship to
other members o f the series, and for determining the direction of
the unity that embraces them all. The Serial Law is the principle
o f unity in diversity, o f synthesis in division.
A typical Proudhonian series is that of Liberty— the ‘immortal
series’ as he calls it. Arranged historically, it runs as follows:
liberty of persons; liberty of work; liberty o f conscience; liberty
o f examination; liberty of voting. Failure to understand the unity
implied in this series has in the past led the protagonists of various
liberties into fratricidal strife, but the realisation that all kinds of
freedom are mutually interdependent is the means by which this
confusion can be ended.
The Serial Law, indeed, is itself a law of liberty, for it allows
men to understand the co-existence o f a principle of unity and a
principle o f differentiation, and thus makes it possible for them
to live in society without losing their freedom. Here Proudhon
takes up a position which distinguishes him from extreme indivi­
dualists like Max Stirner. To Stirner the fundamental reality was
the individual, and society was the enemy. To Proudhon the
individual is the basic unit, but society provides the serial order
within which each man’s personality finds function and fulfilment.
Individuals cannot live on their own— there is no such thing in
nature as an isolated being or fact; all things, and all men, exist
within serial groups, but the serial group does not constitute a
totality in which individual differences are melted and merged
into uniformity. Yet at the same time it is not merely a collection
o f individuals. Out of it emerges a collective force and a collec­
tive character which are distinct from those o f its members. This
idea o f the collective force or consciousness was to become a
constant and important element in Proudhon’s thought.
The Serial Law is applied in human relationships by political
economy. Proudhon here emerges, years before Marx and Engels