ABSTRACT
In 1841, Charles Fourier launched an attack against social scientists—whom he called “the philosophers of the uncertain sciences”—for systematically neglecting the fundamental problems of the sciences they deal with.
When dealing with industrial economy, they forget to study the associations of people that are the basis of the economy itself… . Dealing with administration, they fail to consider the means of accomplishing the administrative unity of the globe, without which empires will never have permanent order or guaranty of future… . Dealing with morals, they forget to recognize and demand the rights of women, whose oppression undermines the basis of justice… . Dealing with human rights, they forget to recognize the right to work, which is actually not possible in the present society but without which all the other rights are useless. (1967: 86, 129)
