ABSTRACT
Charles Fourier’s importance is primarily as an acute critic of the traditional system of his time. He was a constructive critic who attempted to offer an alternative to that system, but his proposals were altogether so radical and fantastic as to be unacceptable as a whole. Fourier’s aims are on a lower moral level than those of Condorcet and hardly as edifying, but perhaps more attuned to the twentieth century. His ideas have some similarity with Condorcet’s noble ideals—they both advocate universal education—but Fourier belongs to a different school of thought. Fourier allowed the child much liberty but relied almost exclusively upon emulation and example as a means of instruction. His doctrine had a definite impact on Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Fourier’s educational ideas belong to that large school of thought which stems from F. Rabelais, J. A. Comenius, John Locke, E. B. Condillac and J. J. Rousseau, and culminates in the contemporary movement of the “new” education.
