ABSTRACT
If I begin the part on classifications with the French schools, it is because more than a century ago, a Frenchman who was not primarily a psychologist, but is known rather for his endeavors to reform the social order, has given us the most original, and at the same time the most detailed, scheme of characterology that we have yet had. Charles Fourier’s grasp of human relations and destinies was stupendous, almost cosmic in its reach, and the development of his thought most systematic : yet probably because of his erratic tendencies, which are evident in his writings at every turn, his name finds no place in psychological discussions, except for two pages devoted to him in Bain’s book on character. It is true that Fourier’s number-complex and fanciful analogies often make us wonder whether the man is not a reincarnation of some mediaeval mystic pottering with the Apocalypse, a cabalist of the fifth century. Nevertheless, when allowance is made for this fantastic streak in his make-up, and when his work The Passions of the Human Soul is read as a whole and not merely in snatches, one cannot help deciding that this genius, whose combination of uncritical dogmatizing and rare insight reminds us very much of his greater compatriot Pascal, was in many respects ahead of his time.
