Pensée de l'acte et conseil de l’action: La perspective proudhonienne du travail industriel

Abstract

How does one guide action? By thinking it out well and completely so that, one says, it is good and fair since it conforms to reason. Thinking about the act itself imposes that it comes from within the subject of the action, sure of success, effective and efficient. Who can then assign the necessity of one’s act to a rational subject? The master-thinker who is the theoretician of action. Is the figure of the philosophical-adviser of action a component of all thinking about action? Can one escape this assimilation of the subject of the action and thinking about the act which transforms the advice into an order? This paper examines the philosophical elements of the illusion of advice. Does not Proudhon’s analysis on industrial work provide a means to overcome this epistemological obstacle?