French utopian socialist philosopher: who is Charles Fourier?

François Marie Charles Fourier (April 7, 1772 – October 10, 1837) was a French utopian socialist and philosopher.

Today's scholars say that Fourier coined the word féminisme in 1837. Fourier argued in 1808 that the extension of women's rights was the main principle of all social progress. In addition, with his thoughts, he was the source of the communist societies of La Reunion, which lasted from 1855 to 1860, and the North American Phalanx, which lasted from 1841 to 1856.

François Marie Charles Fourier (7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have become mainstream thinking in modern society. For instance, Fourier is credited with having originated the word feminism in 1837.

François Marie Charles Fourier was born on April 7, 1772 in Besançon. He died in Paris on October 10, 1837. He is the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. He completed his high school education at the Jesuit School in his native city. At the age of 19, he settled in Lyon at the request of his family and started to deal with trade. He went bankrupt in 1793, losing all his wealth. In the same year, he participated in an uprising organized by the Girondins (Girondins) in Lyon. Although he was arrested, he escaped death by escaping from prison. He was drafted into the army in 1794 but left the army in 1796 due to illness. After this date, Fourier settled in Paris and worked as a salesman and clerk in various commercial enterprises for a while. He retired from business in 1803 and spent the rest of his life spreading his social, economic, and philosophical teachings and putting his ideas into practice. In addition to numerous books, he published Le Phalanstere ou la Reforme Industrielle between 1832-1834 and Le Phalange in 1836.

Fourier's thinking was influenced by Theosophism, a mystical current of 18th-century philosophical thought mingled with magic and enchantment, and the natural optimism of J J Rousseau. According to Fourier, who is against the structure of society based on individualism and competition, man is actually good, humanity has reached the civilization period by crossing a painful path consisting of savagery, barbarism, and patriarchy. The level of industrial development reached in this period makes it possible for natural harmony to take place. However, the social and economic structure is dominated by disorganization, irrationality, and brute force. Civilization progresses in a vicious circle among contradictions that it cannot resolve and constantly recreates, and leads to the exact opposite of what it wants to achieve poverty and parasitism.