In 1817 Saint-Simon published a manifesto called the "Declaration of Principles" in his work titled L'Industrie ("Industry"). Saint-Simon was born of an impoverished aristocratic family. After an irregular education by private tutors, he entered military service at 17. [10] Unlike conceptions within industrializing societies of a working class being manual labourers alone, Saint-Simon's late-18th century conception of this class included all people engaged in productive work that contributed to society such as businesspeople, managers, scientists and bankers, along with manual labourers, amongst others. [19] Around 1814 he wrote the essay "On Reconstruction of the European Community" and sent it to the Congress of Vienna. After a few attempts to recover his money from his former partner, he received financial support from Diard, a former employee, and was able to publish in 1807 his second book, Introduction aux travaux scientifiques du XIX siècle. The school now counted among its number some of the ablest and most promising young men in France, many of the pupils of the École Polytechnique having caught its enthusiasm. An important departure was made in 1828 by Amand Bazard, who gave a "complete exposition of the Saint-Simonian faith" in a long course of lectures in Paris, which was well attended. Saint-Simon’s Utopianism: The general impression about Saint-Simon’s socialist thought is that it is Utopian in character. [11] Unlike Marx, Saint-Simon did not regard class relations, vis the means of production, to be an engine of socio-economic dynamics but rather the form of management. He was sent to a sanatorium in 1813, but with financial help from relatives he had time to recover his health and gain some intellectual recognition in Europe. * He argued, in consequence, that the direction of … He does this by clearing it of the dogmas and other excrescences and defects that he says gathered round the Catholic and Protestant forms of it. In Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel The Possessed, 'Saint-Simonist' and 'Fourierist' are used as derogatory insults of others by many of the politically active characters. [22] Remarkably, he shot himself in the head six times without succeeding, losing his sight in one eye.[23]. Saint-Simon created a political and economic ideology known as Saint-Simonianism that claimed that the needs of an industrial class, which he also referred to as the working class, needed to be recognized and fulfilled to have an effective society and an efficient economy. [10], In the Declaration Saint-Simon strongly criticized any expansion of government intervention into the economy beyond these two principal economic roles, saying that when the government goes beyond these roles, it becomes a "tyrannical enemy of industry" and that the industrial economy will decline as a consequence of such excessive government intervention. Enfantin would go on to organize an expedition of the disciples to Constantinople, and then to Egypt, where he influenced the creation of the Suez Canal. [10] He believed the principal economic roles of government were to insure that productive activity in the economy is unhindered and to reduce idleness in society. Prior to the publication of the Nouveau Christianisme, Saint-Simon had not concerned himself with theology. This was considered radical for the time. A couple of years later in his writing career, Saint-Simon found himself ruined, and was forced to work for a living. He proposed a European kingdom, building on France and the United Kingdom. This development of his ideas occasioned his final quarrel with Comte. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. He was in the regiments sent by France to aid the American colonies in their war of independence against England and served as a captain of artillery at Yorktown in 1781. In his major work, Nouveau Christianisme (1825), he proclaimed a brotherhood of man that must accompany the scientific organization of industry and society. Saint Simon's conceptual recognition of broad socio-economic contribution, and his Enlightenment valorization of scientific knowledge, soon inspired and influenced utopian socialism, liberal political theorist John Stuart Mill, anarchism through its founder Pierre-Joseph Proudhon who was inspired by Saint-Simon's thought and Marxism with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels identifying Saint-Simon as an … [citation needed] The most acclaimed disciple of Saint-Simon was Auguste Comte. [2] He emphasized more emphatically than Smith that state administration of the economy was generally parasitic and hostile to the needs of production. In the early years of the revolution, Saint-Simon devoted himself to organizing a large industrial structure in order to found a scientific school of improvement.