Utopian and Scientific

French texts

Jules Leroux, “Economie politique” (1838)

August 12, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
ÉCONOMIE POLITIQUE. — Ce que l’on a costume de désigner sous ce nom n’est pas la science, mais un système, [1] et comme notre dessein dans l’article que l’on va lire est de nous occuper précisément de la science, non du système, il ne sera peut-être pas inutile de faire précéder cet article de quelques mots d’introduction. Fidèle au nom qu’elle porte, l’Economie politique est la recherche de la loi, de l’arrangement des diverses parties constituantes de la nation, le but de cette loi étant de donner à la nation son plus grand bien-être, sa plus grande prospérité, sa plus […]
Utopian and Scientific

Notes on Simon Ganneau (the Mapah) and Evadaisme

July 14, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
We notice the death in Paris, a short time ago, of M. Ganneau. To most of our readers this obscure name will awaken no recollections; yet M. Ganneau had thought himself preordained to great things—and had some years ago drawn on himself no small share of public attention in Paris. At a period when new sects were springing up on all sides—when Mormons were crossing the Rocky Mountains, and “unknown tongues” were flourishing in England—he was the founder—we should say, the inventor—of a new religion; which he named “Evadaisme,” and of which he was—to use his own term—the “Mapah.”

[…]

Utopian and Scientific

Pierre Leroux, “De l’Union européenne” / “Of the European Union” (1827)

May 9, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Decentralizing empires, establishing in each province, in each city its own activity, and at the same time breaking down the barriers that separate nations, this is what liberty, science and industry aim for: so that, if their triumph was complete, we could say of the great society of men what Pascal said of the universe: Center everywhere, circumference nowhere.

[…]

Utopian and Scientific

Mathieu Briancourt, “The Organization of Labor & Association” (1846)

March 22, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Many good minds have long been persuaded that on the present generation must devolve the task of solving the formidable problem of the organization of labor, under penalty of being visited by a social revolution, the terrible consequences of which are incalculable. This belief gains ground every moment, and already this question of life and death for civilization is placed among the orders of the day by the most valuable organs of publication.

[…]

Utopian and Scientific

Short Sequels to “Looking Backward”

February 23, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
With nerves unstrung by that horrent nightmare, which had replunged me into the cruel vortex of nineteenth century antagonism and brutality, I cast around for some method of restoring my usual equanimity. An excursion into the country would, it appeared to me, serve the double purpose of acting as a nervous sedative, and of enabling me to realize something of the conditions of rural life in this year 2000 A. D.

[…]

Utopian and Scientific

Charles Fourier in the the “Journal de Lyon, Nouvelles de la France et de l’étranger”

February 10, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
It is amusing for me to make so many young muses gossip at will: if I have an article printed, these gentlemen immediately fight against me in verse and prose, in the two newspapers. Aren’t they a little confused being twenty to one? Couldn’t you, gentlemen, talk about anything other than me? Where would your mind be without my madness? You only develop it when I excite it. I Am not so uniform; satire, harmony, the triumvirate, all that is madness for some, good for others; but at least it is varied. You would still have cackled about the problem of women’s liberty, if I had given it.

[…]

French texts

Charles Fourier, “Sur les charlataneries commerciales” (1807/1808)

February 10, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
English translation (pdf) UN PAMPHLET DE FOURIER. La discussion qui vient d’avoir lieu sur les ventes des marchandises neuves à l’encan donne de l’à-propos à la reproduction d’un article assez curieux publié à Lyon, par Fourier, il y a environ trente-trois ou trente-quatre ans, sous forme de pamphlet, Nous voyons avec plaisir de beaux esprits découvrir chaque jour les vices de la concurrence anarchique et de la liberté illimitée et déréglée du commerce; mais il est intéressant aussi de trouver dans une simple boutade de Fourier, lancée en 1807 ou 1808, plus de bonne critique et de bons principes que […]
Utopian and Scientific

Bibliography of the works of Charles Fourier

February 9, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Notes (from Wiki): Lettre de Fourier au grand juge (with material by Charles Pellarin) at Google Books Oeuvres complètes (1841) THÉORIE DES QUATRE MOUVEMENTS ET DE DESTINÉES GÉNÉRALES. TROISIÈME ÉDITION. at Google Books THÉORIE DE L’UNITÉ UNIVERSELLE. PRÈMIERE VOLUME. DEUXIÈME ÉDITION at Google Books THÉORIE DE L’UNITÉ UNIVERSELLE. DEUXIÈME VOLUME. DEUXIÈME ÉDITION at Google Books THÉORIE DE L’UNITÉ UNIVERSELLE. TROISIÈME VOLUME. DEUXIÈME ÉDITION at Google Books THÉORIE DE L’UNITÉ UNIVERSELLE. QUATRIÈME VOLUME DEUXIÈME ÉDITION at Google Books LE NOUVEAU MONDE INDUSTRIEL ET SOCIÉTAL. TROISIÈME ÉDITION. at Google Books De l’anarchie industrielle et scientifique at Google Books La fausse industrie morcelée, […]
Utopian and Scientific

Paul Brown in the “Boston Investigator” (1832–1847)

February 4, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] B, “The Radical—No. III,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 1 (March 30, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 4,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 4 (April 20, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 5,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 5 (April 27, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 6,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 6 (May 4, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 7,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 7 (May 11, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 8,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 8 (May 18, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 9,” Boston Investigator 2 no. 9 (May 25, 1832): 1. B, “The Radical…No. 10,” […]
Utopian and Scientific

Paul Brown, “Twelve Months in New Harmony” (1827)

February 3, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
For several years I had been addicted to the contemplation of a new social order, in which all property should be held in common stock, being fully persuaded that this was the only equitable mode of subsisting of mankind in a state of society. I was driven to meditate on this subject by my suffering from the inadequacy of the existing institutions to extend justice to the poor, and the odious grinding influence of individual wealth and unequal usurped power, which in several instances had borne grievously afflictively upon me. I became acquainted with several persons in New-York City and in the state of Ohio, who were in the same train of speculation.

[…]