Page:Peter Alexeivitch Kropotkin - Modern Science and Anarchism (1912).pdf/112

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
108
Modern Science and Anarchism.

intended to combine the workers of all the civilised countries, and was thus a precursor of the International Working Men’s Association—compelled Owen and his associates to limit their activities to peaceful Co-operation and moderate Trade Unionism. His principal works were: "Outline of a Rational System," "The Book of the New Moral World," and "Revolution in the Mind and Practice of the Human Race"; but he issued countless smaller writings and papers, and created quite a school of English Socialists, unfortunately forgotten now.

Proudhon, Pierre (1809–1865), French Socialist, the most powerful critic of the capitalist system and the State, as well as the authoritarian systems of Communism and Socialism. About his own system of Mutualism, see the text of this book. Chief works: "What is Property?" "System of Economic Contradictions"; "Confessions of a Revolutionist"; "General Idea about the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century"; "On the Political Capacity of the Working Class"; etc.

Ricardo, David (1772–1823), an English economist of the school considered as "classical" by the Universities. He fully developed, after Adam Smith, the theory that the amount of necessary labour is the standard and measure of the exchange value of all marketable goods; and also a theory of ground rent, to which the Universities attribute a scientific value. His chief work was "On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation" (1817).

Rousseau, Jean Jacques (1712–1778), French philosoper. A forerunner of the Great Revolution, whose writings, together with those of Mably, greatly influenced most of those who stood foremost in the Revolution, especially in its Jacobinist wing. He preached the return to a simple and natural life, equality, democratic and republican institutions, and a sound education embodying a knowledge of both science and manual work; and he endeavoured to lay the foundations of a natural religion which might supersede Church Christianity. He has had an ardent follower in Leo Tolstoy. Chief works: "On the Origin of Inequality among Men," "Le Contrat Social," "Emile," "Le Vicaire Savoyard," "The New Heloise," and "Mes Confessions."

Saint-Simon (1760–1825), with Fourier and Robert Owen one of the three great founders of nineteenth-century Socialism. He endeavoured to base his conclusions upon a solid study of the economic relations, such as they exist in society, and upon the laws of their development; and through that his teachings—"Saint-Simonism"—found a great number of followers, and inspired a great number of the best thinkers (Auguste Comte), historians (Augustin Thierry), economists (Sismondi), and industrial philanthropists of the nineteenth century. His practical conclusions were leading him to an association of Capital and Labour. All the leading theoretical principles of so-called "Scientific Socialism," or "Marxism," are but a further development of the theoretical ideas advocated by the Saint-Simonists.