physical nature, having its source in the necessity o f generation,
but also o f an intellectual element which transforms it into a
social ‘necessity/ a focus o f Justice, and a basic unit in society.
Christian marriage, however, is a perversion of true marriage. By
reserving to God the intimate preferences o f the heart, it results
in the separation o f love from marriage, and thus produces an
inevitable upsurge o f eroticism and moral degeneration. Only
where liberty exists, where the Absolute is dethroned and the
innate sense o f Justice has become man’s rule of conduct, will
marriage be reinstated as a source of right and the family as a
nucleus o f social regeneration.
Thus far Proudhon’s reasoning is clear and consistent, but it is
when he comes to discuss the position o f women that his innate
puritanism leads him into paths which, while often ingenious,
tend frequently towards absurdity. Particularly strange is the
misapplication of mathematics with which he supports the
patriarchal attitude o f the typical peasant.
The physical inferiority of women, he declares, is uncontested.
To man she stands in this respect as 2 to 3. In reasoning and in
moral strength, it is clear to Proudhon, she is weaker in the same
proportion, and since these faculties multiply each other, we
come, by geometrical progression, to the conclusion that the
incurable inferiority of woman in the fields of work, knowledge
and Justice places her, as compared with man, in the relationship
of 8 to 27.
One cannot immediately dismiss Proudhon’s statements with
the amused contempt which at first sight their odd form seems
to deserve. Women are certainly inferior in strength— though
they are often superior in endurance, which creates a certain
biological balance. It is also true that there has never been a
great woman philosopher, and that women in general tend to
base their moral judgments on emotional rather than rational
criteria. But these criticisms are not universally applicable. Since
Proudhon’s day many women have become excellent scientific
workers; others, like Spiridonova, Louise Michel and Rosa
Luxembourg, have shown their devotion to the Revolution and
their realisation o f the full meaning of Justice as Proudhon saw
it. And in considering the mass o f women to whom his criticisms
still to a large extent apply, one might point to the effects of
centuries o f subjection, of miseducation, o f rearing for a position
2x4
THE PALADIN OF JUSTICE