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Henri de Saint-Simon | |
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| Born | 17 October 1760 Paris, France |
| Died | 19 May 1825 (aged 64) Paris, France |
| School tradition | Dialectical idealism Utopian socialism |
| Nationality | French |
Claude Henri de Saint-Simon (17 October 1760 – 19 May 1825) was a French utopian socialist and political theorist. He defined the French Revolution as a class war between the nobility, bourgeoisie, and propertyless classes.[1] He also defined a distinction between idlers and workers (industriels), which included proletarians, bankers, manufacturers, and merchants, effectively merging the proletariat and bourgeoisie under one umbrella.[2] As capitalism was only beginning to develop at this time, Saint-Simon predicted that the bourgeoisie would only hold limited power as public officials or social trustees,[1] and he genuinely wanted to end the exploitation of the proletariat.[2]
During the French Revolution, Saint-Simon initially sided with the Jacobins and adopted a bourgeois liberal point of view. But when he was dissatisfied with the bourgeois revolution's results, he developed a scientific, mechanistic analysis of societal progress known as "social physiology."[2] But his material analysis was limited by his idealist worldview, which led him wanting to overcome class conflict through religious morality.[2] In 1814, he called for the "superior" European race to colonise the rest of the world.[3][4] In 1815, at the time of Napoleon's defeat, Saint-Simon called for an alliance of France, Germany, and England to guarantee the prosperous development of Europe.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Friedrich Engels (1880). Socialism: Utopian and Scientific: 'The Development of Utopian Socialism'. Progress Publishers. [MIA]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 N. E. Zastenker (1976). Great Soviet Encyclopedia (3rd ed.), vol. 23: 'Saint-Simon, Comte de' (Russian: Boljšaja sovjetskaja enciklopjedija). [PDF] Moscow.
- ↑ “Peupler le globe de la race européenne, qui est supérieure à toutes les autres races d'hommes; le rendre voyageable et habitable comme l'Europe, voilà l'entreprise par laquelle le parlement européen devra continuelle-ment exercer l'activité de l'Europe, et la tenir toujours en haleine.”
Henri de Saint-Simon (1868 [1814]). Œuvres complètes, vol. 1: 'De la réorganization de la société européenne'. Paris: Slatkine reprints. - ↑ “Saint-Simon also advocated that the European Confederation tried to colonize the rest of the world: 'To colonize the world with the European race, which is superior to every other race: to make the world accessible and habitable like Europe—such is the sort of enterprise by which the European Parliament should continually keep Europe active and happy.'”
Richard Swedberg (May 1992). Saint-Simon's vision of a united Europe. European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie, 35(1), 145–169. doi: 10.1017/S0003975600006809 [HUB]