Saint-Simon what what

Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon

17 October 1760 – 19 May 1825

He was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of the duc Saint-Simon. He always had aspirations to be great, as well as a restless spirit that actually led him to America for a couple years where he fought under command of George Washington in the siege of Yorktown.

Saint-Simon endorsed the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity as they became prominent ideals of the French Revolution. He devoted his time during the early revolution to founding a scientific school of improvement that was based in a large industrial structure. During Reign of Terror, Saint-Simon was imprisoned under the suspicion of his involvement in counter-revolution activities. He was realized in 1794. His fortune was stolen by his business partner, and from this point forward Saint-Simon devoted himself to political studies. 

He created the political and economic ideology known as industrialism. Industrialism claims that the working class must be recognized and fulfilled in order to achieve an efficient society. He saw the industrial class as more than just manual laborers, but as an integral sect of society. Saint-Simon actually considered all people who are engaged in productive work, laborers, businesspeople, scientists and bankers alike, to be a part of essentially the same class; the class of production. 

It follows then that Saint-Simon considered what he would call the 'idling class' to be the greatest threat to society. The idling class being those members of society who did not engage in productive work and who prefer to profit off of the work of others. 

He put emphasis on the need for recognition of the merit and the individual worker and the need for an ordered hierarchy of merit in society and in the economy. Those award with the highest merit would then become the decision makers in Saint-Simon's ideal government. He vehemently criticized the expansion and intervention of government in the economy beyond the responsibility of ensuring that productive work would not be hindered and that idlers would not be tolerated. 

This ideology greatly inspired the movement of utopian socialism, influencing theorists such as John Stuart Mill, as well as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the person to declare himself an anarchist. It is also evident that Saint-Simon's ideals influenced Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as well, and subsequently inspired certain aspects of communism. However one must acknowledge the great differences between Industrialism and Communism, one of the largest being that Saint-Simon did not condemn capitalism and did not promote class conflict. 

It is argued by many, the most prominent being historian Alan Ryan, that although Saint-Simon was counted amount the utopian socialists, he himself was simply an inspiration to the movement and not a utopian socialist himself. 

Fun facts! 

-August Comte was his secretary!!!!

-Saint-Simon is buried in Père Lachaise cemetery 

-Tried committing suicide, shot himself in the head six time… and lived!!! What!!!!!!!!!