Charles Fourier

François Marie Charles Fourier (1772 to 1837) was a French philosopher regarded as having founded the concept of utopian socialism. Born in Besançon, the son of a small businessman, he worked for years as a traveling salesman and correspondence clerk in Lyon, Paris, Rouen, Marseille and Bordeaux while writing, and his first book, published in 1808, sold few copies until his patron Just Muiron took it up. He held that concern and cooperation are the keys to social success and proposed communities called phalanxes, housed in buildings called phalansteries, where work was assigned by interest and passion and pay followed contribution. His ideal phalanx held 1,620 people, matching twelve passions and 810 types of character. The word feminisme in his 1837 edition of the Theory of the Four Movements has been seen as formative for feminism. His proposals inspired intentional communities such as Brook Farm in Massachusetts, the North American Phalanx in New Jersey and the Familistery of Guise in France, though his own phalansteries stayed concepts because he never raised the money. Scholars also note the economic and religious antisemitism in his writing. He died in Paris in 1837.