Capitalism and its Discontents – Week 3 Flashcards
Key Themes:
- The Dream of Utopia
- Utopian Socialism
- Marx and Marxism
Utopia:
Term coined by Sir Thomas More
Thomas More (1479-1535) – Lord Chancellor, humanist and martyr
More trained as lawyer, but also underwent formal religious training
More = humanist scholar (studied and translated Greek and Latin Europe-wide correspondence network)
Utopia (1516), originally in Latin. Travellers tale of a voyage to an imaginary island.
Title comes from Greek (“no place” or “nowhere”) or (“good place”)
More’s book was an immediate success
Inspired numerous limitations, commentaries, satires and a whole tradition that became known as “utopianism”
John Locke (1632-1704), British Philosopher. Second Treatise of Government (1690): “In the beginning all the world was America”
America = European ‘discovery’ of America boosted utopian ideas
Utopian Socialism:
Nobody called themselves “utopian socialists” at this time; it was adopted by Marx and Engels to criticise their opponents. But is widely used by historians Three key figures: 1. Henri Saint-Simon 2. Charles Fourier 3. Robert Owen
Saint-Simon (1760-1825):
French social philosopher
Often considered the “founding father” of socialism
France needed to be modernised to avoid future revolutions and upheavals
Responded to political upheaval of French Revolution and the social upheaval of French revolution and the social upheaval of industrialisation
Founded the journal L’Industrie, only lasted a couple of years but quite influential as promoted new scientific developments
Journal attacked the “thieves and parasites” who weren’t productive
Only an “industrial” (a productive member of society) should vote
Argued for a “science of man” that would give objective guidance
Gradually became more radical in his views over time
Final work, Nouveau Christianism, (New Christianity, 1825), tried to reconcile science and Christianity
Saint-Simionism:
Movement created by Saint-Simon’s friends after his death
Mainly wealthy and well-educated, but “outsiders” in French society (e.g. c.12% Jewish)
Important figures in French industrialisation financing the railway network and planning the Suez Canal
Proposed new, social banks as the solution
Promoted liberation of women (several leading Saint-Simonians were women)
Claire Demar, one of the most prominent female Saint-Simonians wrote an ‘Appeal of a Woman to the people of the enfranchisement of women, 1833 – Demar condemned traditional marriage
In the 1830s, women were gradually, systematically excluded from leadership in the movement by its charismatic leader Prosper Enfantin (1796-1864)
Fourier, Charles (1772-1837)
French social theorist whose ideas were taken up by the Saint-Simonians (and others)
Advocated creation of model communities called a phlanstere – utopian community, democratic, self-governing, everybody worked, anti-religious (argued for science of human nature)
“The extension of women’s rights is the basic principle of all social progress”
Fourier advocated free labour (including public copulation), no monogamy and the order members of the community providing “practical sex education to younger members” – no emphasis on consent, oppressive
Communal childcare was also envisaged
Accepted homosexuality as an aspect of human sexuality
Fourierism:
Loose movement to implement Fourier’s ideas
Colonies establishment in USA e.g. North American Phalenx
Fourier’s chief US discipline, Victor Considerant founded a phalanx in Texas
Robert Owen (1771-1858)
British industrialist and social reformer
Apprenticed to a cloth merchant
Became interested in the new machinery
Borrowed money to become a partner in a machine-making firm that produced spinning mules
In 1792, he started managing a mill owned by Peter Drinkwater, the first man to use a Boulton and Watt engine to power cotton spinning in Manchester
In 1798, met Ann Caroline Dale, who he married the following year. Her father, David Dale, had built mill at New Lanark, where he tried to improve the conditions for his workers
Owen was impressed with father in laws ideas, and formed a partnership to buy the New Lanark mill in 1800
New Lanark employed about 1800 (including 500 pauper children)
Reduced working day from 11 ¾ to 10 ¾ hours
Got rid of shoddy, overpriced goods from the company store
Pioneered infant education
Tried to eliminate punishment from education
One-sixteenth of wages was set aside for sickness, injury and old age – first use of a pension scheme
Absenteeism and pilfering reduced
Smith: A ‘New View of Society’ or ‘Essays on the Principle of the formation of the Human Character’ (1813-14)
- Promoted national, universal education
- Recommended restricting “gin shops and pot houses”, and the state lottery and gambling
- Ending church of England religious monopoly
- Proposed public works in times of trade and agricultural depression – nothing distinctively socialist in his proposals
Smith: Gradually gets more radical – published “Observations on the Effects of the Manufacturing System” (1815)
- Identified greed and the demand for rapid profits as the source of excesses of industrialisation
- Supported the use of machinery, but only to reduce working hours and increase leisure
- After publishing, in 1817, Owen toured cotton districts to survey working conditions, much worse than even he feared. Almost a quarter of the factory children had injuries or deformities caused by work
Gradually began to associate with working class radicals
Started to promote model communities (which he called “villages of union”)
In 1825, he purchased a ready-built township at New Harmony in Southern Indiana. Hugely expensive to run (it almost bankrupted him). Fell apart within a couple of years.
Robert Owen – Legacy
Owen inspired British Co-operative movement
1835, founded what became the universal Community Society of Rational Religionists (or Rational Society)
Numerous branches, built local “halls of science”, organised large-scale public meetings to spread what was being called “socialism”
Fredrich Engels attended some of these in Manchester, getting his first exposure to socialise ideas
Etienne Cabet (1788-1856)
French Communist, whose utopian romance Voyage et Aventures de Lord William Carisdall en Icarie (usually called The Voyage to Icaria, 1840) won him many followers
Cabet and about 500 “Icariars” went to US to establish communities
Utopian Socialism:
Despite their differences these four and their followers shared key ideas:
- Imaginary an ideal world
- Model communities (usually in America)
- Sometimes rural communities, but many interested in machinery and new technology
- Science of “man”/society (sociology)
- Society must progress through stages towards increasing perfection
Marx and Marxism:
German economic and political philosopher
- Societies defined by their mode of production (technology combined with social mechanisms)
- Feudal societies were based on land ownership and agricultural production
- Mode of production: “The Land-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam mill society with the industrial capitalist” = Marx
Marx:
New modes produce greater surplus
All societies are marked by class conflict, which leads to political, social and economic change
Marx (and his close collaborator Engels) described their philosophy as “scientific socialism”
