Question

Describe the ideas of Utopian Socialists.

Answer 1

Historically, modern socialism is divided into two phases before Carl Marx and after Marx.

Marxist thankers named them Utopian Socialism and Scientific Socialism respectively.

The first utopian socialist was saint Simon a French thinker. His idea was that instead of exploiting each other, people should exploit nature together. The society should work for the upliftment of the poor class.

Another thinker, Charles Fourier, was of the view that workers should work in cities or towns.

Louis Blanc's view was that political reforms are necessary first to make economic reforms effective.

An important utopian thinker was the British industrialist Robert Owen. He has had a factory in Newlunark (Scotland).

In this factory he provided good remuneration facilities to the workers and he realized that the profit was increased even more. His conclusion was that satisfied workers are real workers.

Utopian thinkers were the early thinkers who tried to solve the problem of the relationship between capital and labour. His vision was visionary.

Like the enlightened thinkers, they believed in the fundamental goodness of the human beings and the perfection of the past. Instead of class struggle, he emphasized on class co-ordination