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FOURIER, FRANCOIS CHARLES MARIE (1772...
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See also:FOURIER, See also:FRANCOIS See also: Psychologically Fourier held what may with some laxity of See also:language be called natural optimism,—the view that the full, See also:free development of human nature or the unrestrained See also:indulgence of human See also:passion is the only possible way to happiness and virtue, and that misery and See also:vice See also:spring from the unnatural restraints imposed by society on the gratification of See also:desire. This principle of See also:harmony among the passions he regarded as his grandest discovery—a See also:discovery which did more than set him on a level with See also:Newton, the discoverer of the principle of attractidn or harmony among material bodies. Throughout his See also:works, in uncouth, obscure and often unintelligible language, he endeavours to show that the same fundamental fact of harmony is to be found in the four See also:great departments, society, See also:animal life, organic life and the material universe. In See also:order to give effect to this principle and obtain the resulting social harmony, it was needful that society should be reconstructed; for, as the social organism is at See also:present constituted, innumerable restrictions are imposed upon the free development of human desire. As See also:practical principle for such a reconstruction Fourier advocated co-operative or united See also:industry. In many respects what he says of co-operation, in particular as to the enormous See also:waste of economic force which the actual arrangements of society See also:entail, still deserves See also:attention, and some of the most See also:recent efforts towards See also:extension of the co-operative method, e.g. to See also:house-keeping, were in essentials anticipated by him. But the full realization of his scheme demanded much more than the See also:mere See also:admission that co-operation is economically more efficacious than individualism. Society as a whole must be organized on the lines requisite to give full See also:scope to co-operation and to the harmonious See also:evolution of human nature. The details of this reorganization of the social structure cannot be given briefly, but the broad outlines may be thus sketched. Society, on his scheme, is to be divided into departments or phalanges, each phalange numbering about 1600 persons. Each phalange inhabits a phalanstere or See also:common See also:building, and has a certain portion of See also:soil allotted to it for cultivation. The phalansteres are built after a See also:uniform See also:plan, and the domestic arrangements are laid down very elaborately. The See also:staple industry of the phalanges is, of course, See also:agriculture, but the various See also:series and groupes into which the members are. divided may devote them-selves to such occupations as are most to their See also:taste; nor need any occupation become irksome from See also:constant devotion to it. Any member of a See also:group may vary his employment at See also:pleasure, may pass from one task to another. The tasks regarded as See also:menial or degrading in See also:ordinary society can be rendered attractive if See also:advantage is taken of the proper principles of human nature: thus See also:children, who have a natural See also:affinity for dirt, and a fondness for " cleaning up," may easily be induced to accept with eagerness the functions of public scavengers. It is not, on Fourier's scheme, necessary that private property should be abolished, nor is the privacy of See also:family life impossible within the phalanstere. Each family may have See also:separate apartments, and there may be richer and poorer members. But the See also:rich and poor are to be locally intermingled, in order that the broad distinction between them, which is so painful a feature in actual society, may become almost imperceptible. Out of the common gain of the phalange a certain portion is deducted to furnish to each member the minimum of subsistence; the See also:remainder is distributed in shares to labour, See also:capital and See also:talent,—five-twelfths going to the first, four-twelfths to the second and three-twelfths to the third. Upon the changes requisite in the private life of the members Fourier was in his first work more explicit than in his later writings. The institution of See also:marriage, which imposes unnatural bonds on human passion, is of See also:necessity abolished; a new and ingeniously constructed See also:system of See also:licence is substituted for it. Considerable offence seems to have been given by Fourier's utterances with regard to marriage, and generally the later See also:advocates of his views are content to pass the See also:matter over in silence or to See also:veil their teaching under obscure and metaphorical language. The scheme thus sketched attracted no attention when the Theorie first appeared, and for some years Fourier remained in his obscure position at Lyons. In 1812 the death of his See also:mother put him in See also:possession of a small sum of See also:money, with which he retired to Bellay in order to perfect his second work. The Traite de l' association agricole domestique was published in 2 vols. at See also:Paris in 1822, and a See also:summary appeared in the following See also:year. After its publication the author proceeded to Paris in the See also:hope that some wealthy capitalist might be induced to See also:attempt the realization of the projected scheme. Disappointed in this expectation he returned to Lyons. In 1826 he again visited Paris, and as a considerable portion of his means had been expended in the publication of his See also:book, he accepted a clerkship in an See also:American See also:firm. In 1829 and 183o appeared what is probably the most finished exposition of his views, Le Nouveau Monde industriel. In 1831 he attacked the See also:rival socialist doctrines of See also:Saint-See also:Simon and See also:Owen in the small work Pieges et charlatanisme de deux sectes, St Simon et Owen. His writings now began to attract some attention. A small See also:body of adherents gathered See also:round him, and the most ardent of them was See also:Victor Considerant (q.v.). In 1832 a newspaper, Le Phalanstere ou la ref See also:orme industrielle was started to propagate the views of the school, but its success was not great. In 1833 it declined from a weekly to a monthly, and in 1834 it died of inanition. It was revived in 1836 as Le Phalange, and in 1843 became a daily See also:paper, La Democratic pacifique. In 185o it was suppressed. Fourier did not live to see the success of his newspaper, and the only practical attempt during his lifetime to establish a phalanstere was a See also:complete failure. In 1832 M. Baudet Dulary,See also:deputy for See also:Seine-et-See also:Oise, who had become a convert, See also:purchased an See also:estate at See also:Conde-sur-Vesgre, near the See also:forest of See also:Rambouillet, and proceeded to establish a socialist community. The capital supplied was, however, inadequate, and the community See also:broke up in disgust. Fourier was in no way discouraged by this failure, and till his death, on the loth of See also:October 1837, he lived in daily expectation that wealthy capitalists would see the merits of his scheme and be induced to devote their fortunes to its realization. It may be added that subsequent attempts to establish the phalanstere have been uniformly unsuccessful.' Fourier seems to have been of an extremely retiring and sensitive disposition. He mixed little in society, and appeared, indeed, as if he were the See also:denizen of some other See also:planet. Of the true nature of social arrangements, and of the manner in which they naturally grow and become organized, he must be pronounced extremely ignorant. The faults of existing institutions presented themselves to him in an altogether distorted manner, and he never appears to have recognized that the evils of actual society are immeasurably less serious than the consequences of his arbitrary scheme. Out of the See also:chaos of human passion he supposed harmony was to be evolved by the See also:adoption of a few theoretically disputable principles, which themselves impose restraints even more irksome than those due to actual social facts. With regard to the economic aspects of his proposed new method, it is of course to be granted that co-operation is more effective than individual effort, but he has nowhere faced the question as to the probable consequences of organizing society on the abolition of those great institutions which have grown with its growth. His temperament was too ardent, his See also:imagination too strong, and his acquaintance with the realities of life too slight to enable him justly to estimate the merits of his fantastic views. That this description of him is not expressed in over-strong language must be clear to any one who not only considers what is true in his works,—and the portion of truth is by no means a See also:peculiar discovery of Fourier's, but who takes into account the whole body of his speculations, the cosmological and See also:historical as well as the economical and social. No words can adequately describe the fantastic nonsense which he pours forth, partly in the See also:form of See also:general See also:speculation on the universe, partly in the form of prophetic utterances with regard to the future changes in humanity and its material environment. From these extra-ordinary writings it is no extreme conclusion that there was much of See also:insanity in Fourier's See also:mental constitution. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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