Saint-Simon, Claude Henri de Rouvroi

(1760–1825)

   Philosopher.

   Saint-Simon was born into a noble family in Paris. He led an adventurous life and he fought with the rebels in the American War of Independence. He is remembered for his belief that it was the industrial working class who were the main contributors to the good of the State. He propounded this thesis in his periodicals L’Industrie and L’Organisateur in which he argued for the complete transformation of society. Later, in his Nouveau Christianisme, he maintained that the Church should concentrate on teaching the Christian message of the brotherhood of man and thus work for the improvement of the world, rather than being preoccupied with theology. Saint-Simon’s ideas were influential on a generation of European intellectuals in the early nineteenth century.

   E. Durkheim, Socialism (1958);

   F.E. Manuel, The New World of Henri Saint-Simon (1956).