CHAPTER VIII HUMAN INVENTIONS SUSCEPTIBLE OF PERPETUAL IMPROVEMENT Perfectibility of man-instanced, first, in language.-Its beginning.- Abstraction.-Complexity of Language.-Second instance: aphabetical writing.-Hieroglyphics at first universal. -Progressive deviations. -Application. BEFORE we proceed to the direct subject of the present inquiry, it may not be improper to resume the subject of human improvableness, and consider it in a somewhat greater detail. An opinion has been extensively entertained "that the differences of the human species in different ages and countries, particularly so far as relates to moral principles of conduct, are extremely insignificant and trifling; that we are deceived in this respect by distance and confounded by glare; but- that in reality the virtues and vises of men, collectively taken, always have remained, and of consequence," it is said, "always will remain, nearly at the same point...
Its Nature, Object, and Destiny
The Revolution of February raised two leading questions: one economic, the question of labor and property; the other political, the question of government or the State. On the first of these questions the socialistic democracy is substantially in accord. They admit that it is not a question of the seizure and division of property, or even of its repurchase. Neither is it a question of dishonorably levying additional taxes on the wealthy and property-holding classes, which, while violating the principle of property recognized in the constitution, would serve only to overturn the general economy and aggravate the situation of the proletariat. The economic reform consists, on the one hand, in opening usurious credit to competition and thereby ... (From : proudhonlibrary.org.)