Utopian socialism
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Utopian socialism[a] refers to the early socialist movements which premised their idea off idealist, utopian, and moralistic understandings of society and which predated the development of scientific socialism, or Marxism. Utopian movements largely emerged in the 18th and early 19th centuries during the nascent development of capitalism and the proletariat. Notable thinkers of this tendency included Charles Fourier, Robert Owen, and Étienne Cabet.[1]
Utopian socialism ultimately failed to realize its aims in creating a new society. Its views lacked a scientific analysis of society and the conditions of the oppressed classes while being premised on metaphysical inventions and gospels detached from social revolution. Utopian socialism would be supplanted by Marxism by the end of the 19th century, although it persists in some form into the present with movements such as anarchism, reformism, and revisionism.[2]
See also
References
- ↑ Frederick Engels (1880). Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. Available on the Marxists Internet Archive.
- ↑ Vladimir Lenin (1908). Marxism and Revisionism.
"Pre-Marxist socialism has been defeated. It is continuing the struggle, no longer on its own independent ground, but on the general ground of Marxism, as revisionism."
Notes
- ↑ Also known as pre-Marxist socialism, proto-socialism, and similar terms.