@mtrimpe:
Keep in mind that Proudhon wrote over a century ago. The book was originally in French, and from the 1.5 chapters I've read so far, the contextual history is not insignificant.
One of the grand advances of our day are business models built on the Information Age. While they continue to work inside older paradigms that may be wrong, it may be a weighty mistake to generalize that because the older paradigms are wrong, even the modern practices are wrong.
Proudhon necessarily speaks from an abstract, utopian point of view. I do that a lot, too, so I'm very familiar with it. I also know, and agree with, the idea that inapplicable philosophy is useless by itself. You have to specify how you get there from here. Proudhon briefly acknowledges this, IIRC. The grandest of philosophies are frequently difficult in practice.
Sure, trying to blow away the smoke without putting out the fire may be impossible, but can we put out the fire without another way of keeping ourselves warm?
|