Utopian and Scientific

From the Archives

Henri de Saint-Simon (1760 – 1825)

November 3, 2024 Shawn P. Wilbur
Links: Letters from an Inhabitant of Geneva to his Contemporaries (pdf) Researching the background and origins of anarchism means engaging to some extent with the works of most of the so-called “utopian socialists.” In recent years, I’ve had a chance to revisit and translate works by Pierre Leroux, Charles Fourier and some more obscure figure, but hadn’t had a chance to get reacquainted — and better acquainted — with Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon. It has not been the most appealing of side-projects, simply because the literature of Saint-Simonianism is both extensive — 47 volumes in the main […]
encyclopedia entries

Dictionary of Phalansterian Sociology — X-Z

October 24, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
X Emploi de la lettre x dans la théorie de la distribution sériaire. — La lettre X a été adoptée par Fourier pour désigner dans la distribution sériaire les groupes de pivot et de contre-pivot. X couché, le groupe de pivot de série. [><] X droit, indique le groupe de contre-pivot. N. 63 — Voir : signe, néologie. Use of the letter x in the theory of serial distribution. — The letter X has been adopted by Fourier to designate the pivotal and counter-pivotal groups in the serial distribution. X on its side, the pivotal group of the series. [><] […]
Utopian and Scientific

Paul Brown, “A Moral Catechism” (1822)

May 11, 2021 Shawn P. Wilbur
An appendix to Paul Brown’s 1822 work, An Enquiry Concerning the Nature, End and Practicability of a Course of Philosophical Education. It contains a rather fascinating attempt to sketch out a system of virtues, faculties and passions. APPENDIX. A MORAL CATECHISM. Question. What is the chief end of man? Answer. Happiness. Q. In what sense is happiness the chief end of man? A. Happiness is the chief end of man in this sense, that it is the chief end of his pursuit, the prevailing object in which all his wishes terminate, and that to which his desires and aversions have […]
Utopian and Scientific

John Adolphus Etzler and Andreas Bernardus Smolnikar

September 13, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related links: The Paradise within the Reach of All Men, without Labour, by Powers of Nature and Machinery (1836) [Archive.org] The New World or Mechanical System (1841) [Archive.org] Patents Mode of Propelling Locomotives by Stationary Power Navigating and Propelling Vessels by the Action of the Wind and Waves [A collection of short articles and links relating to the socialist inventor John Adolphus Etzler and Andreas Bernardus Smolnikar, an enthusiastic supporter of his project.] LETTER FROM MR. J. H. ETZLER. The wise man examines before he judges, The fool judges before he examines. New York, November 9, 1843. To The Editors […]
Utopian and Scientific

Charles Fourier, Theory of Universal Unity: Avant-propos

September 12, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
NOTES: These texts form part of an attempt to compare the English translations of Fourier’s works produced in the mid-19th century with the original texts, part of the project of assessing what work remains to be done to make his basic works available in English. It will be very much in-progress for some time. In the short term, it will at least be possible to judge the quality of those early translations.  In the second edition of Théorie de l’unité universelle, the Avant-propos is preceded by an essay “Du libre arbitre” (“On Free Will”), twelve summary chapters and various other […]
Utopian and Scientific

Henry Olerich, “A Cityless and Countryless World” (1893)

August 24, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Reviews: A CITYLESS AND COUNTRYLESS WORLD. BY MARIE LOUISE. Under this caption, Mr. Henry Olerich, of Holstein, Iowa, writes a 447 page book on “Practical Cooperative Individualism.” Like all speculative philosophers, the author believes in the forceful action of the allegoric style on the minds ol intelligent men and women. To that effect, he introduces to us a Mr. Midith, who was born on the planet Mars and had undertaken to visit our earth by means of a “projectile.” The missile reached our planet, not on solid ground, but in the waves of the Pacific, about a mile from the […]
French texts

Pierre Leroux, “De la doctrine du progrès continu” (1834)

August 13, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
The second volume of the Œuvres de Pierre Leroux begins with a lengthy essay “De la doctrine de la perfectibilité et du progrès continu,” which combines material from this essay and two others. Pierre Leroux and the Doctrine of Humanity [main page] Aux souscripteurs de la Revue [Identified in the index as “De la doctrine du progrès continu”] Nous publions enfin, au milieu de l’année 1834, le complément de notre recueil pour 1833. Nous devons à nos abonnés une franche explication sur un si long retard. La Revue, au moment où nous nous sommes chargés de sa rédaction, avait éprouvé […]