Summary
Count Henri de Rouvroy de Saint-Simon, a French aristocrat, possessed the spirit of democracy and translated his convictions into action by fighting in the American Revolution. Renowned for his pigheadedness, he determined to become a philosopher and launched a survey of human knowledge which, along with an unsuccessful marriage, dissipated his finances and led to a bungled suicide attempt. His search resulted in Saint-Simon's belief in the brotherhood of man, which evolved into an industrial religion.
This half-mad utopian stressed the necessity of work, which led to his conclusion that workers deserve society's greatest rewards, and idlers deserve the least. Reality proved that the opposite situation was true: non-working aristocrats received the greatest share of wealth and did the least work. Saint-Simon proposed to reorganize society along the lines of a factory, with the function of government being economic rather than political. With the aid of scientists, technicians, and capitalists, government should arrange for rewards to be allotted in proportion to each person's social contribution. Rewards should go to active members and not to lazy onlookers. But Saint-Simon offered only theory without working out practical details. After his death, his ideas degenerated into a mystical, hazy religion, with churches in France, England, and Germany.
Commentary
Saint-Simon, while quite impractical, is called the founder of French socialism. Defining a nation as "nothing but a great industrial society," and politics as "the science of production," he took as his motto: "Everything by industry; everything for industry."
