Fourier

FRANÇOIS CHARLES MARIE, (foo're-ai,) a famous French socialist, B. in Besançon, 1772. He served on the Rhine during the Revolutionary period, and afterwards embarked in trade, at the same time earnestly studying the problem involved in the modern social system of mankind. In 1808 he di eminated his peculiar views on Socialism by the publication of a work entitled A Theory of Four Movements and General Destinies, which, in 1822, was reproduced in a completed form under the name of A Treatise on Domestic and Agricultural A ociation. A supplement to it appeared later, styled The New World of Industry and Society. In 1831 he established a newspaper called the Phalange, for the better exposition of his doctrines, whence he has been sometimes called The Phalansterian. D. 1837. Fourierism, or the social system devised by F., differs materially from the systems of Communism strictly so called, and all other social theories. He believed that A ociation would produce general riches, honesty, attractive and varied industry, health, peace, and universal happine . Considering attractions and repulsions the governing forces of all nature, and that God has distributed them for the happine of all His creatures, he held that " attractions are proportional to destinies," or that the desires or pa ions of men, their aptitudes and inclinations, if they could have free scope, would infallibly produce the highest condition and greatest happine of which they are capable. He believed in a universal harmony, flowing from and centring inGod, the author of all harmonies, and that there is therefore a principle of " universal analogy." Seeing that all things, from suns and planets to atoms, range themselves in groups and series, according to certain fixed laws of attraction and repulsion, he labored to discover the kind of human society that must eventually form itself in obedience to those laws. This is the A ociation or Phalanstery, which is to consist of 400 families or 1,800 persons, which number he found included the whole circle of human capacities. These should live in one immense edifice, in the centre of a large and highly cultivated domain, and furnished with workshops, studios, and all the appliances of industry and art, as well as all the sources of amusement and pleasure. The system of F. does not propose to destroy, but rather to preserve property, position, and hereditary rights; nor does it war directly with morals or religion. The property of the A ociation is to be held in shares, and the whole product of the industrial and artistic groups is to be divided into 12 parts, of which 5 parts are due to labor,4 to capital, and 3 to talent. Many attempts have been made to carry the ideas of F. into practical realization, but generally with inadequate means, and they have resulted in failure. [s. 379]