Francois Marie Charles Fourier was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism.
31 Facts About Charles Fourier
2.
For instance, Charles Fourier is credited with having originated the word feminism in 1837.
3.
Charles Fourier later inspired a diverse array of revolutionary thinkers and writers.
4.
The son of a small businessman, Charles Fourier was more interested in architecture than in his father's trade.
5.
Charles Fourier wanted to become an engineer, but the local military engineering school accepted only sons of noblemen.
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Charles Fourier later said he was grateful that he did not pursue engineering, because it would have consumed too much of his time and taken away from his true desire to help humanity.
7.
When his father died in 1781, Charles Fourier received two-fifths of his father's estate, valued at more than 200,000 francs.
8.
Charles Fourier's travels brought him to Paris, where he worked as the head of the Office of Statistics for a few months.
9.
From 1791 to 1816 Charles Fourier was employed in Paris, Rouen, Lyon, Marseille, and Bordeaux.
10.
Charles Fourier produced most of his writings between 1816 and 1821.
11.
Charles Fourier declared that concern and cooperation were the secrets of social success.
12.
Charles Fourier believed that a society that cooperated would see an immense improvement in their productivity levels.
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Charles Fourier saw such cooperation occurring in communities he called "phalanxes," based upon structures called Phalansteres or "grand hotels".
14.
Charles Fourier considered trade, which he associated with Jews, to be the "source of all evil" and advocated that Jews be forced to perform farm work in the phalansteries.
15.
John K Roth and Richard L Rubenstein have seen Fourier as motivated by economic and religious antisemitism, rather than the racial antisemitism that would emerge later in the century.
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Charles Fourier characterized poverty as the principal cause of disorder in society, and he proposed to eradicate it by sufficiently high wages and by a "decent minimum" for those who were not able to work.
17.
Charles Fourier insists that this transformation requires a complete change in the social institutions: distribution of the social product according to need, assignment of functions according to individual faculties and inclinations, constant mutation of functions, short work periods, and so on.
18.
Charles Fourier assumes the existence of an attraction industrielle which makes for pleasurable co-operation.
19.
Charles Fourier believed that there were twelve common passions which resulted in 810 types of character, so the ideal phalanx would have exactly 1620 people.
20.
Charles Fourier defended homosexuality as a personal preference for some people.
21.
Charles Fourier believed that all important jobs should be open to women on the basis of skill and aptitude rather than closed on account of gender.
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Charles Fourier spoke of women as individuals, not as half the human couple.
23.
Charles Fourier saw that "traditional" marriage could potentially hurt woman's rights as human beings and thus never married.
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Charles Fourier's concern was to liberate every human individual, man, woman, and child, in two senses: education and the liberation of human passion.
25.
On education, Charles Fourier felt that "civilized" parents and teachers saw children as little idlers.
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Charles Fourier felt that children as early as age two and three were very industrious.
27.
Charles Fourier listed the dominant tastes in all children to include, but not limited to:.
28.
Charles Fourier was deeply disturbed by the disorder of his time and wanted to stabilize the course of events which surrounded him.
29.
Charles Fourier saw his fellow human beings living in a world full of strife, chaos, and disorder.
30.
Charles Fourier is best remembered for his writings on a new world order based on unity of action and harmonious collaboration.
31.
Charles Fourier is known for certain Utopian pronouncements, such as that the seas would lose their salinity and turn to lemonade, and a coincidental view of climate change, that the North Pole would be milder than the Mediterranean in a future phase of Perfect Harmony.