Charles Fourier

Charles Fourier (French: Charles Fourier; April 7, 1772 - October 10, 1837) was a famous French philosopher, economist, and utopian socialist. He invented the term "feminism" in 1837. Fourier was born into a wealthy merchant family in the city of Besançon. After graduating from high school, he worked as a store clerk, salesman, scribe and exchange broker. He criticized some ugly phenomena in the capitalist society at that time and hoped to establish a socialist society with Francestel as the grassroots organization, where personal interests and collective interests were consistent. He believed that the differences between mental work and manual work, and rural and urban work could be completely eliminated, and for the first time he proposed that the degree of women's liberation was a measure of whether the people were completely liberated. His political thought became known as Fourierism. He observed and studied the capitalist system, wrote many papers, and established his utopian socialist ideological system. Taking the level of economic development as a symbol, it believes that human society is a development process from a low stage to a high stage, and divides social history into five stages of development. It believes that the capitalist system must be replaced by a more advanced "harmonious system". He criticized the irrational phenomena of capitalist society and asserted that the decentralization of capitalist production will inevitably lead to competition and anarchy, thus making economic crises inevitable; he believed that capitalist society is a society in which individual interests and collective interests are sharply opposed, and personal happiness is based on the misfortune and pain of others. The wage labor system is a "resurrected slavery system." It is envisaged to establish a "harmonious society" with "Faranghi" as the basic unit to replace the capitalist society. In "Faranghi", agriculture is the mainstay and industry is the secondary. Everyone participates in labor and earns income based on labor, capital and talent. Education is combined with productive labor, social education is implemented for children, and men and women enjoy equal rights. "Faranghi" is only a reflection of early immature proletarian thought. He also fantasizes about imposing it on society through peaceful propaganda and demonstration, thus it is a kind of utopian socialism. However, the rational elements in its theory are one of the theoretical sources for Marx and Engels to create scientific socialism. His major works include "Worldwide Harmony", "Theory of Four Movements", "Theory of Worldwide Unity", "New World", etc.