Modern French Philosophy | Page 8

of inheritance and the distribution of property is placed, as in the communist programme, in the hands of the organising authority. Saint-Simon had a keen insight into modern social conditions and problems. He stressed the economic inter-relationships and insisted that the world must be regarded as "one workshop." A statement of the principles of the Saint- Simonist School, among whom was the curious character Enfantin, was presented to the _Chambre des Députés_ in the critical year 1830. The disciples seem to have shown a more definite communism than their master. The influence of Saint-Simon, precursor of both socialism and positivism, had considerable influence upon the social philosophy of the whole century. It only diminished when the newer type of socialist doctrine appeared, the so-called "scientific" socialism of Marx and Engels. Saint-Simon's impulse, however, acted powerfully upon the minds of most of the thinkers of the century, especially in their youth. Renouvier and Renan were fired with some of his ideas. The spirit of Saint-Simon expressed itself in our period by promoting an intense interest in philosophy as applied to social problems.
Saint-Simon was not, however, the only thinker at this time with a social programme to offer. In contrast to his scheme we have that of Fourier (1772-1837) who endeavoured to avoid the suppression of liberty involved in the organisation proposed by Saint-Simon.
The psychology of Fourier was peculiar and it coloured his ethical and social doctrine. He believed that the evils of the world were due to the repression of human passions. These in themselves, if given liberty of expression, would prove harmonious. As Newton had propounded the law of the universal attraction of matter, Fourier endeavoured to propound the law of attraction between human beings. Passion and desire lead to mutual attraction; the basis of society is free association.
Fourier's _Traité de l'Association domestique et agricole_ (1822), which followed his _Théorie des Quatre Mouvements_ (1808), proposed the formation of associations or groups, phalanges, in which workers unite with capital for the self-government of industry. He, like Saint- Simon, attacks idlers, but the two thinkers look upon the capitalist manager as a worker. The intense class- antagonism of capitalist and labourer had not yet formulated itself and was not felt strongly until voiced on behalf of the proletariat by Proudhon and Marx. Fourier's proposals were those of a bourgeois business man who knew the commercial world intimately, who criticised it and condemned the existing system of civilisation. Various experiments were made to organise communities based upon his phalanges.
Cabet, the author of Icaria (1840) and Le nouveau Christianisme, was a further power in the promotion of socialism and owed not a little of his inspiration to Robert Owen.
The most interesting and powerful of the early socialist philosophers is undoubtedly Proudhon (1809- 1865), a striking personality, much misunderstood.
While Saint-Simon, a count, came from the aristocracy, Fourier from the bourgeoisie, Proudhon was a real son of the people, a mouthpiece of the proletariat. He was a man of admirable mental energy and learning, which he had obtained solely by his own efforts and by a struggle with poverty and misery. Earnest and passionate by nature, he yet formulated his doctrines with more sanity and moderation than is usually supposed. Labels of "atheist" and "anarchist" have served well to misrepresent him. Certainly two of his watchwords were likely enough to raise hostility in many quarters. "God," he said, "is evil," "Property is theft." This last maxim was the subject of his book, published in 1840, _Qu'est-ce que la propriété_? (_ou, Recherches sur le principe du droit et du gouvernement_) to which his answer was "_C'est le vol!_" Proudhon took up the great watchword of _Egalité_, and had a passion for social justice which he based on "the right to the whole product of labour." This could only come by mutual exchange, fairly and freely. He distinguished between private "property" and individual "possession." The latter is an admitted fact and is not to be abolished; what he is anxious to overthrow is private "property," which is a toll upon the labour of others and is therefore ultimately and morally theft. He hated the State for its support of the "thieves," and his doctrines are a philosophy of anarchy. He further enunciated them in _Système des Contradictions économiques_ (1846) and De la Justice (1858). In 1848 he was elected a _député_ and, together with Louis Blanc and Pierre Leroux, figured in the Revolution of 1848. Blanc was a man of action, who had a concrete scheme for transition from the capitalist régime to the socialist state. He believed in the organisation of labour, universal suffrage and a new distribution of wealth, but he disapproved strongly of the dictatorship of the proletariat and of violent revolution. Proudhon expressed his great admiration for Blanc.
The work of both of these men