French social thinker who designed the cooperative phalanstery
He attacked commercial civilization and designed the phalanstery, a cooperative community where people would work according to their passions; the Communist Manifesto counts him among the critical-utopian socialists.
Born into a merchant family in Besançon, Fourier worked from 1791 to 1816 as a travelling salesman and correspondence clerk in several cities. After publishing his Théorie des quatre mouvements anonymously in 1808, he attacked commerce as a source of fraud and misery and designed the phalanstery, a cooperative community organized around “attractive labour” matched to each person’s passions. Followers such as Victor Considerant spread his ideas, and community experiments were attempted in several countries. Chapter III of the Communist Manifesto names him, with Saint-Simon and Owen, among the founders of critical-utopian socialism and criticizes his disciples for clinging to experiments such as phalansteries and opposing workers’ political movements; this is Marx and Engels’ assessment.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1791–1816Worked as a travelling salesman and correspondence clerk in Paris, Rouen, Lyon, Marseille and Bordeaux.
- 1808Published the Théorie des quatre mouvements anonymously in Lyon.
- 1822Published his major treatise on domestic-agricultural association.
- 1829Published Le Nouveau Monde industriel et sociétaire, a summary of his theory.
- 1837Died in Paris.