Henri de Saint-Simon
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Qui, quand le monde entier, de Paris jusqu'en Chine, --Lauglé et Vanderbusch; Henri de Saint-Simon (1832) "Fourier’s socialistic system is not so pure a form of socialism as that of Saint-Simon, inasmuch as he retained private capital and, temporarily at least, inheritance." --French and German Socialism in Modern Times (1883) by Richard Theodore Ely |
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Henri de Saint-Simon (1760 – 1825) was a French thinker of influence in utopian socialism. He was born an aristocrat; the political ideologies he adopted in later life do not fall into the aristocratic category. Saint-Simon defied the formalities and conventions of his social class and fled to America to fight in the American Revolution when he was 16.
When he was nearly 40 he went through a varied course of study and experiment to enlarge and clarify his view of things. The result of his experiments was that he found himself completely impoverished, and lived in penury for the remainder of his life. His early writings were mostly scientific and political.
In opposition to the feudal and military system he advocated a form of state capitalist-technocratic socialism, an arrangement where industrial chiefs should control society.
In place of the church, he felt the direction of society should fall to the men of science. Men who are fitted to organize society for productive labour are entitled to rule it.
Saint-Simonianism
Saint-Simonianism was a French socialist movement of the first half of the nineteenth century. The movement is named after Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon who promoted ideas of Christian socialism but after his death, the movement that formed around his ideas became increasingly extreme in its religious views.
The movement was centered around the École Polytechnique. After roughly 1830, the Saint-Simonians led by Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin formed an increasingly religiously-minded Messianic group, before being banned by the authorities in 1832.
Saint-Simonianism had some influence in England, particularly among the followers of Joanna Southcott who shared the Saint-Simonian idea that a female messiah would come soon.
People associated with the movement
- Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon (1760-1825)
- Amand Bazard (1791-1832)
- Olinde Rodrigues (1794 - 1851)
- Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin (1796-1864)
- Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
- Gustave d'Eichthal (1804-1886)
- Michel Chevalier (1806-1878)
- Gioacchino Prati (1790-1863)
- Gregorio Fontana (fl. 1830s)
See also