Abstract

In opposition to MarxMarx, Karl’s polemical criticism of ProudhonProudhon, Pierre-Joseph’s abuse of Hegelian thought, this study shows—on the basis of a number of unpublished manuscript sources—how the different ways in which ProudhonProudhon, Pierre-Joseph’s preoccupation with certain themes of post-Kantian idealism, particularly the man-GodGod distinction, antedated his meetings with various German exiles in the four years preceding the 1848 Revolution. As ProudhonProudhon, Pierre-Joseph learned more and more about German thought from second-hand Francophone works of vulgarization and the philosophical writings of the French eclectics like Victor Cousin and his associates and disciples, Proudhon’s filtered encounters with idealism served as fodder for developing claims and arguments which he had been elaborating since at least 1839. To this extent, the question of how well ProudhonProudhon, Pierre-Joseph understood the ideas of KantKant, Immanuel, FichteFichte, Johann Gottlieb, Schelling, or Hegel is largely irrelevant. Examining the particular lens of prejudices and preoccupations through which ProudhonProudhon, Pierre-Joseph encountered their ideas is far more pertinent to understanding how German philosophy might have impacted his work.