Henri de Saint-Simon

French early socialist theorist (1760-1825)

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Lived 1760–1825, aged 65France

France AcademicsAcademic

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Era
1760–1825
Aged 65

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

An 18th-century French aristocrat who built the scaffold for modern socialism — not by championing the poor, but by arguing that scientists, bankers, and factory workers alike formed a productive class strangled by idle parasites at the top.

Biography

About

Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon was born 17 October 1760, a younger relative of the famous memoirist Duc de Saint-Simon. He developed a political and economic ideology that redrew the map of class: his "industrial class" wasn't just manual labor but everyone doing productive work — businesspeople, managers, scientists, bankers — and his enemy was the "idling class," able-bodied persons living what he saw as parasitic lives. He wanted hierarchies run by merit, with top managers and scientists making government decisions, and he opposed state meddling in the economy beyond ensuring…

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In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Henri de Saint-Simon

Henri de Saint-Simon

said1814

The progress of the human mind, the revolutions which occur in the development of knowledge, give each century its special character.

— Preface

Henri de Saint-Simon

said1814

The philosophy of the last century was revolutionary ; that of the nineteenth century must be constructive.

— Preface

Henri de Saint-Simon

said1814

After a violent convulsion Europe fears fresh disasters, and feel the end for a long repose; the sovereigns of all the European nations are assembled to give her peace.

— Opening, Ch. I

Henri de Saint-Simon

saidundated