Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2019, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (1): 184-210.

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Seeking Scientific Knowledge of the Society: Saint-Simon's Social Physiology

NI Yuzhen   

  1. School of History, Capital Normal University
  • Online:2019-01-20 Published:2019-01-20
  • Supported by:

    This paper was funded by 2015 National Social Science Fondation Project "Reflections on Enlightenment and the French Revolution by French Thinkers in the First Half of the 19th Century"(15BSS039).

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Abstract:

Faced with the post-French Revolution crises, the French thinkers of the early nineteenth century began turning away from the theory of natural rights and started paying much more attention to the social aspects of the society. As a result, social theories flourished. Saint-Simon, one of these social theorists, continued the efforts of Condorcet and the Ideologues to found social science and coined the term of "social physiology" as a science of social organization. Saint-Simon attached importance to the study of real people and concrete social facts, not the imaginary natural state. He was critical of the Enlightenment abstract notion of individual prevailing at the time. With the application of the new scientific knowledge in physiology and history, he attempted to reveal the social attributes of man and the significance of organization and social work in the development of human intelligence. Inspired by the Ideologues, Saint-Simon considered the society as an organism. He analyzed the relationship of the three social forces:the men of property, the proletarians and the savants. According to him, these different parts of the society should cooperate to constitute a harmonious unity. In his views, society cannot be understood with some snapshot studies and historical change is at heart of society. Through his study of historical facts and relations between these facts, Saint-Simon uncovered the dynamic mechanism of the European social history. Upon this basis, Saint-Simon proposed his preliminary ideas of social organization. The social theory of Saint-Simon merged together the kernels of social science and socialism. It helped France step out of the Revolution mood to begin reconstruction. Saint-Simon left us a legacy of dual spiritual heritages:fraternity and compassion for social sufferings as well as a rational scientific social science based on facts for social change.

Key words: natural right, unity, society, organism