The life and work of Saint-Simon

The birth of socialism

Abstract

As a young man, the Count of Saint-Simon (1760-1825) participated in the American War of Independence and in the French Revolution. Later he contributed significantly to the development of political ideas and the formation of socialist thought. It helps to explain why he was, during the Cold War, one of the only thinkers honored in both the USA and the USSR. There are many foreign scholars who consider him the inspirer of the most important political-philosophical currents of the 19th century. Marxism, liberalism, positivism, feminism and social Catholicism have had strong inspiration in his texts and those of his followers. It is time to bring to the Brazilian debate, breaking the almost complete lack of knowledge of his work, the great questions that it continues to raise. What was Saint-Simon's work? How did this relate to his turbulent biography? Was Saint-Simon a socialist or a precursor of socialism? What was the influence of his thinking on Marxism? What are the political bases of his philosophy? These are some of the questions we aim to answer in this work, which is partially biographical but also the result of an in-depth analysis of primary and secondary sources about this author.