CHILDREN OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT: HENRI DE SAINT-SIMON AND KARL MARX

Abstract

This essay purports to discover commonalities extant in Henri de Saint-Simon and Karl Marx while bearing in mind that the two thinkers markedly differ from each other. It compares and contrasts between the thoughts of Henri de Saint-Simon and those of Karl Marx and argues that both can be rightly called the children of the Enlightenment, exhibiting such characteristics as utopianism and enlightenment. This argument defies the conventional wisdom that Marx was fundamentally different from the utopian socialists of the nineteenth century, but confirms that Marx too was utopian for many of his revolutionary theories evolved from Saint-Simon s thoughts on social restructuring and Marx reflected the quest for immutable laws of society just like Saint-Simon, which was a lasting effect of the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason. The essay shows how Marx shares with Saint-Simon the heritage of the Enlightenment. Saint-Simon, on the one hand, tried to discover due just social order in the advent of a scientific and industrial society following the French Revolution. Marx on the other hand, faced with the ill-effects of the Industrial Revolution and agonized over a way out from inhumane capitalism. Both producer s paradise and proletariat s communist society are not practical but utopian. Marx s view of change, idea of replacing government with administration, and plan for reorganization of the society evolved from Saint-Simon s thoughts. However the faults in both Saint-Simon and Marx lie in a circular logic in which the uncertain future and newly born creatures complete a loop. Thereby the fundamental question deals with the advent of a new generation of men, which does not seem to occur any time soon. Their efforts still bear significance not only in the advanced capitalist society but also in the third world countries for they propounded for a just society and the political means through which the society comes into being. These efforts often contain the elements of utopianism and enlightenment as seen in both Saint-Simon and Marx.