Charles Fourier

Charles Fourier (1772-1837), French philosopher and socialist, born in Besançon, and educated at the university there. About 1799, Fourier began studying politics and economics. His first full-length work, Théorie des quatre mouvements et des destinées générales (Theory of the Four Movements and of General Destinies, 1808), expounded his social system and his plans for the cooperative organization of society. The system, known as Fourierism, is based on his belief in a universal principle of harmony, displayed in four departments: the material universe, organic life, animal life, and human society. This harmony can flourish only when the restraints that conventional social behavior places upon the full gratification of desire have been abolished, allowing people to live free and complete lives.

The ideal harmonious state was to be accomplished by dividing society into cooperative phalanxes, or communities, each consisting of about 1600 people who would live in the phalanstery, a vast communal building placed in the center of a highly cultivated agricultural area. Elaborate rules were laid down for the conduct of life within the individual phalanx. Assignment of work was based on talent. Private property was not to be abolished, but by mixing the rich and the poor, the visible distinctions between them would disappear. The communal wealth of the phalanx would provide liberally for the basic subsistence of the individual members. Marriage in the accepted sense was to be abolished and replaced by an elaborate system regulating the social behavior of those living together.

The plan attracted little attention, and Fourier continued working as a broker in Lyon. He later went to Paris, where he tried unsuccessfully to find a wealthy person willing to finance his scheme. By 1832 he had managed to collect a small band of adherents to his theories. For the most part the phalanxes that he founded failed. Fourierism was introduced into the United States in 1842 by the American social theorist Albert Brisbane, and by 1850 more than 40 phalanxes were founded, few of them lasting more than a short time. The two most successful communities were Brook Farm, in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, which converted to Fourierism for a period of time, and the North American Phalanx at Red Bank, New Jersey.