Ashley+Fourier+D

=// __Photobooth Interview: Charles Fourier __ //= =  = media type="youtube" key="LX06OUI81tI" height="295" width="480"

Script Charles Fourier Interview

Script  //So Mr Fourier, you have a new book out, is that right?//  Yes, it’s a book I have been working on for quite some time. It is called The Theory of the Four Movements.  //Now, this is a book that promotes socialism – could you expand on this topic?//  Socialism is a belief that is steadily growing at this moment. which promotes ideals such as more power to the state, **equal rights for all**, and an **end to inhumanity.**  //It is interesting that you should mention equality for all, and in your book you mention one major social inequality present in the world in relation to business.//  Cooperation and equality are necessary and how can this occur when one sect of people are routinely discriminated against? I am talking about women. I may be mocked for what I say, yet **I believe that by leaving women out we are disregarding workers that could potentially help us to better our economy**. Jobs should be decided on the basis of who is better at the job – who has the most skill – not based on who had the ‘privilege’ of being born in a specific gender.  //How exactly do you apply this to the current society at this time?//  Since that question is rather broad, I will try to answer in a manner that is as brief as possible. My fundamental belief is that **society should be based on concern and cooperation and not corruption and immorality as is present in this day**. I think that it is the duty of all men to try to create a society in which all men work together in harmony, for the general happiness of others, yet I think that this is impossible in the corrupt society in which we exist now.  //Could you elaborate upon which aspects of society you believe to be based on immorality?//  It is my belief that this is particularly demonstrated in **businesses – terrible organizations which are based solely on economical development, and which do not see the humanitarian aspect of things. Due to this ‘industrial revolution’** occurring, machines that can do the work of many people are being developed, and due to a heightened demand people are forced to move to the cities to work. Since there is such a large labor force, businesses see people are seen as expendable – focusing primarily on having a large input of money. They neglect their workers and pay them the bare minimum of money, which is hardly enough to survive on. This caused me to create the idea of phalanxes - a better world in which such problems can be solved and inhumane treatment is kept at bay.  //And the consequence of lower income is..?//  Poverty: The main cause of social disorder. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> //Wait, so are you saying that you do not believe the main cause of social disorder to be inequality?// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Although, arguably, inequality may play a part in the resentment that occurs between social classes, I believe that it is fundamentally based on economic problems. Since it is true that the most socially repressed groups are often the most economically challenged, people may perceive that being socially lower causes the resentment, yet I do not believe the two to have a cause and effect relathionship. (Sighs) The world in general seems so disorderly – too chaotic for my liking. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> //Then how do you suggest we change businesses in order to make our society a better place?// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Although other socialists believe that we need to change and rectify the dangers apparent in the industrial revolution, I do not see the need to do this. Industrialism is but a passing phase you know, and although I despise many practices evident in this phase, I do not think that it warrants my attention sufficiently in order for me to propose changes, since it will be over soon anyway. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> //But in your book you propose a society that will be created in the future – could you please elaborate more upon this society?// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The first and foremost thing that one must keep in mind is that this is very different from Thomas Moore’s vision of **utopia** – the difference being that this world is **inherently possibl**e, and is a society that can be created in the immediate future. According to my calculations, this society will be in place for 80,000 years, 8,000 of which will be in complete harmony. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> //Uh… can you elaborate to the viewers at home about how this will be achieved?// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Well the world as we know it will be divided into communities called **phalanxes**. In these phalanxes **wealth is determined by the job the people have, and the jobs they have are based on their personal preferences**. I believe that people should not be in jobs they do not like, and that they should instead live according to their natural inclinations. I think that **the state of nature is not something to be suppressed, since it was put into us by God, and so in this society human desires will be cultivated and expressed** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Bibliography <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Charles Fourier (1772-1837)." GTM. 10 Dec. 2008 <http://arthur.u-strasbg.fr/~ronse/CF/>.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Charles Fourier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 10 Dec. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fourier>.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Charles Fourier on the Revolution." Center for History and New Media . 10 Dec. 2008 <http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/589/>.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Charles Fourier, 1772-1837 -- Selections from his Writings." The History Guide -- Main. 10 Dec. 2008 <http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/fourier.html>.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Charles Fourier." Spartacus Educational - Home Page. 10 Dec. 2008 <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSfourier.htm>.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Lecture 21: The Utopian Socialists: Charles Fourier (1)." The History Guide -- Main. 10 Dec. 2008 <http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/Lecture21a.html>.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Socialism - Industrial Revolution And The Rise Of Socialism, Utopian Socialists: Owen, Saint-simon, Fourier." Science Encyclopedia. 10 Dec. 2008 <http://science.jrank.org/pages/8088/Socialism.html>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Primary Source 1 __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"The Industrial Revolution - Impact." The Industrial Revolution. 10 Dec. 2008 <http://industrialrevolution.sea.ca/impact.html>.

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">OF THE ROLE OF THE PASSIONS //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">

All those philosophical whims called duties have no relation whatever to Nature; duty proceeds from men, Attraction proceeds from God; now, if we desire to know the designs of God, we must study Attraction, Nature only, without any regard to duty, which varies with every age, while the nature of the passions has been and will remain invariable among all nations of men. … We are quite familiar with the five sensitive passions tending to Luxury, the four affective ones tending to Groups; it only remains for us to learn about the three distributive ones whose combined impulse produces Series, a social method of which the secret has been lost since the age of primitive mankind, who were unable to maintain the Series more than about 300 years. The four affective passions tending to form the four groups of friendship, love, ambition, paternity or consanguinity are familiar enough; but no analyses or parallels or scales have been made of them. The three others, termed distributive, are totally misunderstood, and bear only the title of vices, although they are infinitely precious; for these three possess the property of forming and directing the series of groups, the mainspring of social harmony. Since these series are not formed in the civilized order, the three distributive passions cause disorder only. … My theory confines itself to utilizing the passions now condemned, just as Nature has given them to us and without in any way changing them. That is the whole mystery, the whole secret of the calculus of passionate Attraction. There is no arguing there whether God was right or wrong in giving mankind these or those passions; the associative order avails itself of them without changing them, and as God has given them to us. Its mechanism produces coincidence in every respect between individual interest and collective interest, in civilization always divergent. It makes use of men as they are, utilizing the discords arising from antipathies, and other motives accounted vicious, and vindicating the Creator from the reproach of a lacuna in providence, in the matter of general unity and individual foresight. Finally, it in nowise disturbs the established order, limiting itself to trial on a small scale, which will incite to imitation by the double allurement of quadruple proceeds and attractive industry.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Document Based Questions: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1. How many attractions did Charles Fourier outline? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">2. What does Charles Fourier feel about the state of nature, and how does this compare with the view of Thomas Hobbes? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Primary Source 2 __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">OF EDUCATION //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">

... Nature endows every child with a great number of instincts in industry, about thirty, of which some are primary or guiding and lead to those that are secondary. The point is to discover first of all the primary instincts: the child will seize this bait as soon as it is presented to him; accordingly, as soon as he is able to walk, to leave the infant seristery, the male and female nurses in whose charge he is placed hasten to conduct him to all the workshops and fill the industrial reunions which are close by; and as he finds every where diminutive tools, an industry in miniature, in which little tots of from two and a half to three years already engage, with whom he is anxious to associate, to rummage about, to handle things, at the end of a fortnight one may discern what are the workshops that attract him, what his industrial instincts. The phalanx containing an exceedingly great variety of occupations, it is impossible that the child in passing from one to the other should not find opportunities of satisfying several of his dominant instincts; these will exhibit themselves at the sight of the little tools manipulated by other children a few months older than himself. According to civilized parents and teachers, children are little idlers; nothing is more erroneous; children are already at two and three years of age very industrious, but we must know the springs which Nature wishes to put in action to attract them to industry in the passionate series and not in civilization. The dominant tastes in all children are: 1. Rummaging or inclination to handle everything, examine everything, look through everything, to constantly change occupations; 2. Industrial commotion, taste for noisy occupations; 3. Aping or imitative mania. 4. Industrial miniature, a taste for miniature workshops. 5. Progressive attraction of the weak toward the strong. There are many others; I limit myself to naming these five first, which are very familiar to the civilized. Let us examine the method to be followed in order to apply them to <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">i    <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">ndustry at an early <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Document Based Questions: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1. Did Charles Fourier agree with the popular belief that children were lazy and not industrious? What characteristics did he think they exhibitied? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Primary Source 3 __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">OF ATTRACTIVE LABOUR //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In the civilized mechanism we find everywhere composite unhappiness instead of composite charm. Let us judge of it by the case of labor. It is, says the Scripture very justly, a punishment of man: Adam and his issue are condemned to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">     <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">…    <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">     <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Labor, nevertheless, forms the delight of various creatures, such as beavers, bees, wasps, ants, which are entirely at liberty to prefer inertia: but God has provided them with a social mechanism which attracts to industry, and causes happiness to be found in industry. Why should he not have accorded us the same favor as these animals? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">... <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Associative labor, in order to exert a strong attraction upon people, will have to differ in every particular from the repulsive conditions which render it so odious in the existing state of things. It is necessary, in order that it become attractive, that associative labor fulfill the following seven conditions:   <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">     <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">     <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">That every laborer be a partner, remunerated by dividends and not by wages. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">     <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> 2. That every one, man, woman, or child, be remunerated in proportion to the three faculties,   //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">capital, labor, and talent    //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">     <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> 3. That the industrial sessions be varied about eight times a day, it being impossible to sustain enthusiasm longer than an hour and a half or two hours in the exercise of agricultural or manufacturing labor. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">     <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">    <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> 4. That they be carried on by bands of friends, united spontaneously, interested and stimulated by very active rivalries. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">     <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">    <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> 5. That the workshops and husbandry offer the laborer the allurements of elegance and cleanliness. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">     <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">    <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> 6. That the division of labor be carried to the last degree, so that each sex and age may devote itself to duties that are suited to it. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">7. That in this distribution, each one, man, woman, or child, be in full enjoyment of the right to labor or the right to engage in such branch of labor as they may please to select, provided they give proof of integrity and ability. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In order to attain happiness, it is necessary to introduce it into the labors which engage the greater part of our lives. Life is a long torment to one who pursues occupations without attraction. Morality teaches us to love work: let it know, then, how to render work lovable, and, first of all, let it introduce luxury into, husbandry and the workshop. If the arrangements are poor, repulsive, how arouse industrial attraction? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Document Based Questions: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1. Why did Charles Fourier believe that people should be in jobs that they like to do? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">2. In his new communities how was Charles Fourier going to establish enjoyable jobs? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> __Sources:__

All sources from


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Charles Fourier, 1772-1837 -- Selections from his Writings." The History Guide -- Main. 10 Dec. 2008 <http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/fourier.html>.