Josiah Warren

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Josiah Warren (1798-1874) was an American individualist anarchist, inventor, musician, and author. He is widely regarded to be the first American anarchist, and some regard the periodical he edited in 1833, The Peaceful Revolutionist, to be the first anarchist periodical ever published. He is credited by Benjamin Tucker as being one of the originators of the socialist ("socialist" here is not used in the modern sense of opposition to private property) criticism of capitalism [1], who, like Proudhon chose the path of anarchy and individualism over authoritarian socialism. Tucker dedicated his collection of essays, Instead of a Book, to the memory of Warren, "my friend and master...whose teachings were my first source of light". Tuckers says that Warren "was the first man to expound and formulate the doctrine now known as Anarchism." (Liberty XIV (December, 1900):1)

Warren's individualistic philosophy arose out of his rejection of Robert Owen's cooperative movement, of which he was an early participant. Warren is notable for expounding the idea of "sovereignty of the individual" (often called "self-ownership"). In Practical Details, he says: "Society must be so converted as to preserve the SOVEREIGNTY OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL inviolate.... it must avoid all combinations and connections of persons and interests and all other arrangements which will not leave every individual at all times at liberty to dispose of his or her own person, and time, and property in any manner in which his or her feelings or judgment may dictate, WITHOUT INVOLVING THE PERSONS OR INTERESTS OF OTHERS" (Warren's emphasis). He says that "by dispensing with government we shake off the greatest invader of human rights." (Equitable Commerce)

Warren termed the phrase "Cost the limit of price," as he believed that it was unethical to charge more for a commodity than the cost of producing or acquiring it. He put his theories to the test by establishing an experimental "labor for labor store" called the Cincinnati Time Store where trade was facilitated by notes backed by a promise to perform labor. The store proved successful and operated for three years after which it was closed so that Warren could pursue establishing colonies based on mutualism. These included "Utopia" and "Modern Times."

[edit] See also

• Cincinnati Time Store
• Utopia (anarchist community)
• Modern Times
• American individualist anarchism
• Mutualism (economic theory)

[edit] External references

• A biography of Warren by his son George W. Warren
• Josiah Warren's "Manifesto"
• Equitable Commerce by Josiah Warren
• Plan of the Cincinnati Labor for Labor Store by Josiah Warren
• True Civilization by Josiah Warren
• Josiah Warren: The First American Anarchist, by William Bailie
• Josiah Warren and the Sovereignty of the Individual by Ann Caldwell Butler
• [2]
• [3]

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