Historia Crítica

Hist. Crit. | eISSN 1900-6152 | ISSN 0121-1617

Robert Owen’s Theory on the Nature of Man and Society as a Base for British Socialism (1813-1816)

No. 50 (2013-05-01)
  • María Fernanda Lanfranco González
https://doi.org/10.7440/histcrit50.2013.09

Abstract

This article analyzes the theory that Robert Owen developed regarding the nature of man and society in his first massively distributed work: A New View of Society, Or, Essays on the Principle of the Formation of the Human Character, and the Application of the Principle to Practice, which was composed of four essays published between 1813 and 1816. The article aims to demonstrate that this theory is evidence for a movement toward cooperative values, instead of individualism, as the base to face human problems. In that sense, the “social philosophy” that underlies his socialist proposal would have been clearly developed in his first widely distributed intellectual work.

Keywords: Robert Owen, British socialism, social change, social values