System of Economical Contradictions; Or, The Philosophy of Misery

The System of Economic Contradictions, or Philosophy of Poverty (French: Système des contradictions économiques ou Philosophie de la misère often erroneously referred to as The Philosophy of Misery) is a work by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon published in 1846. According to George Lichtheim, the "doctrine that emerged went something like this: what people really needed were use values, whereas they were actually being offered exchanges values by the market. These represented thesis and antithesis; Proudhon looked for a synthesis which he termed 'constituted value.' This amounted to saying that goods should be exchanged in proportion to the amount of labour embodied in them - an arrangement that would do away with market fluctuations and at the same time satisfy the requirement of justice."