ABSTRACT
After his death in 1825 Saint-Simon’s legacy was divided between Comte and his school on the one hand and the ‘Saint-Simonians’ – led by Bazard and Enfantin on the other. It was the latter that from 1825 began to evolve the doctrines which produced in a messianic framework, the first theories of economic ‘exploitation of man by man’ that so influenced Marx and Engels. Comte was ‘excommunicated’ from this new religious movement. In fact his nervous breakdown occurred just at the moment the new doctrine was coming into being. As soon as he was able to assess it, he claimed that no such programme had ever been conceived by Saint-Simon himself, that the leaders had barely known Saint-Simon, and that the result was merely a parody of Catholicism. There is no hint in the early Comte that his solution to the problems facing France and modern Europe involved a return to religion directly; rather that religion would lose out to science. Indeed in 1817 Comte (1970: 95-6) actually proposed a law requiring all new ordinations to the priesthood should require successful passage through an examination in the sciences. In this way the priesthood would become positive.
