Divine as the theologians have portrayed it. ‘The absolute is
given, as postulate, in aU knowledge, but it does not follow from
this that it can itself become an object of knowledge.’ The absolute
as such is not the enemy of man; it is the idea of God formulated
by the theologians as a being outside, above, and opposed to
man, that must be attacked, for this idea is the fountain of the
concept o f authority, and hence the enemy o f true justice.
It is here, in discussing the two conceptions of justice, that ot
the Church and that of the Revolution, that Proudhon defines his
theory. Justice as seen by the Church is transcendental; the moral
principle is held to originate in God and hence to be superior to
man. But, according to Proudhon, true justice is immanent-, it is
innate in the human consciousness.
‘An integral part of a collective existence, man feels his dignity
at the same time in himself and in others, and thus carries in his
heart the principle of a morality superior to himself. This prin
ciple does not come to him from outside; it is secreted within him,
it is immanent. It constitutes his essence, the essence o f society
itself. It is the true form of the human spirit, a form which takes
shape and grows towards perfection only by the relationship that
every day gives birth to social life. Justice, in other words, exists
in us like love, like notions of beauty, of utility, o f truth like all
our powers and faculties... Justice is human, completely human,
nothing but human; we wrong it by relating it, closely or distantly,
to a principle superior or anterior to humanity.
On the transcendental theory o f Justice, which presupposes
absolute and permanent formulae unrelated to the development
of the human consciousness or the discoveries of human ex
perience, is based the idea of ‘Divine Right, with Authority for
its watchword.’ Hence proceed all the systems of state administra
tion, of moral regulation, of restrictions on ideas, and ot the
general disciplining of humanity.
From the theory of immanence, on the other hand, it follows
that, ‘Justice being the product o f conscience, each man is in the
last resort the judge o f good and evil... If I myself do not
pronounce that such a thing is just, it is in vain that prince and
priest affirm its justice to me and order me to do it; it remains
unjust and immoral and the power that claims to compel me is
tyrannical... Such is Human Right, with Liberty for its watch
word; hence arises a whole system o f co-ordinations, o f reciprocal
THE PALADIN OF JUSTICE