Labor in Utopian Socialism

Hans Frambach ()
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Hans Frambach: University of Wuppertal

A chapter in The State as Utopia, 2011, pp 77-88 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Theories of the so-called prescientific socialism, meaning the socialistic theories before Karl Marx, are often described as utopian socialism. The utopian socialists criticized the existing social order, but expected a renewal of the order by force of ideas alone. Not the aims but the means were described as utopian. The central category of utopian socialism was labor, which was central, too, for most early nineteenth century economic theories. The utopian socialists interpreted labor in peculiar ways and took it as a starting point for different socialist attempts to put theory into practice. This paper looks at the content and range of the labor concept propounded by the utopian socialists that influenced German economic thought, and analyzes some of the directions taken by utopian socialism, namely the beginnings of socialism in Germany, interventionism, Saint-Simonism, cooperative socialism, and anarchism. To keep the essay succinct, each of these approaches will be exemplified in (for the most part) one main figure.

Keywords: Social Order; Cooperative Socialism; Social Reform; Personal Freedom; Class Struggle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:euhchp:978-1-4419-7500-3_10

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4419-7500-3_10

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