ORIGIN OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM

Utopian Socialism Until the middle of the 19th century the workers were for the most part under the influence of bourgeois ideas or were guided by ideas of utopian socialism . Utopian socialism
originated much earlier , with the appearance of capitalism and the working class . It expressed primarily the protest of the working class against oppression and exploitation , and its striving to establish a new and just system . The first and communism representatives of utopian socialism Thomas More ( 1478-1535 ) , Tomaso Campanella ( 1568 1639 ) , François Noel Babeuf ( 1760-1797 ) , Morelli and others seriously criticised the shortcomings of the exploiter society and suggested a number of ideas about organising a new and just society . In their opinion the new society must establish equality of all people in all walks of life – political , economic and spiritual . What they could not say , however , was how this new society should be created . As a rule , they pictured the new society as something removed from real life . For example , Thomas More placed his new society on an imaginary island called Utopia , and since then the word utopia has become a synonym for everything unreal and unattainable . In the 19th century utopian socialism further developed by Saint – Simon ( 1760-1825 ) , Charles Fourier ( 1772-1837 ) and Robert Owen ( 1771-1858 ) . They saw the contradictions of capitalist society and justly held that the bourgeois revolution had brought the working people neither freedom , nor equality , nor yet fraternity , although these revolution . The utopian socialists was demands had been inscribed on the banner of the bourgeois branded capitalism , exposed its sores and vices , and opposed to it the ideal of a new social system without exploitation and social antago nisms . The utopian socialists of the 19th century recognised the importance of developing production in order that the socialist principle of distribution according to labour might be carried into effect and the basic needs of the people might be satisfied . They even ventured to suggest a definite way of transition from capitalist society to socialist society . Fourier , for example , believed it necessary to organise phalanges . He borrowed this idea from Philip of Macedon , ancient Greek military leader who lined up his troops in separate shock groups – phalanges . According to Fourier , the new society must be organised in a manner of the phalanges ; it must consist of communities of 300-400 families ( about 1,500-1,600 people ) building their life on socialist principles . The example set by these communities was supposed to 6 °
convince the other people of the necessity of building a new society . After publishing his book , setting forth the main ideas about building the new society , Fourier hoped to find a ” good ” capitalist , who would voluntarily give up his capital , and enthusiasts who would want to work in order to build the new society , i.e. , to create a phalange . He asked for volunteers to call on him at any time , but nobody called as long as he lived . Fourier died without ever understanding why his idea had not met with approval . Saint – Simon even invested his money in setting up a small society and tried to arrange life in it on new principles , but that society soon changed to a usual capitalist enterprise with all its contradictions . Why did the utopian socialists fail ? They failed because they had not created a true science about society . In their theories they rested a good deal upon the bourgeois ideas that human nature is invariable and that society is always governed by the same laws . They thought that social laws were like physical laws ; they made no distinctions between capitalists and workers and held that all people could be divided into good ones and bad ones . They believed that , as similar charges repelled and opposite charges attracted each other in nature , people with similar inclinations were unable to get along with each other and those with different tendencies got along very well in society . This erroneous application of physical laws to the study of society was due not only to the influence of bourgeois ideas , but also to the inadequate development of the social and natural sciences of that time and the low level of development of capitalism and the working – class movement , which made it impossible to work out a scientific theory of social development . The utopian socialists could not uncover the laws govern ing the development of capitalist society and find the social force capable of becoming the creator of the new society .