There were two Fouriers: the mathematician Joseph (1768-1830) and the socialist reformer Charles (1772-1837), both studying Harmonic Analysis and building series - although in very different ways... Here we deal only with Charles.
"Je vais plaider la plus ridicule des causes; il n'existe rien de plus bafoué en civilisation que l'amour sentimental."
"I will plead the most ridiculous of all causes; nothing is more flouted in civilization than sentimental love."
Charles Fourier,
Le Nouveau Monde Amoureux.
The sublime passion that makes humans feel like gods, seemingly useless and irrational, mysterious and uncontrollable, always surging despite repression, the longing of both the rich and the poor... What are its degrees? How can it be achieved? Here are its possible developments, ranked by increasing efficiency:
Angelic couples (who do not give themselves to each other until they have satisfied dozens of other suitors) lead multimodal celadony to its most glorious heights, providing love's public service.
Celadony is incompatible with Savage, Patriarcal, Barbarian, and Civilized orders, it will be achieved under Harmony.
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| (Image from the Alchemy Virtual Library) |
Sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell.
Major string: ambition (or honour, glory, interest) and friendship.
Minor string: love (or celadony) and familism (or parenthood).
Cabalist (or Dissenting or Graduating): conscious exaltation produced by divisions in a domain according to minute differences.
Flitting (or Alternating): need to always change activities and pleasures.
Composite (or Coinciding or Meshing): blind exaltation produced by the combination of stimulations or pleasures from different orders.
The union of luxurism and groupism, mechanized by the 3 distributive passions, leads to unityism, the feeling of oneness between the individual and the multitude.
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| (Image from the Alchemy Virtual Library) |
All passions, in particular gastrosophy and love, can be envisaged at several levels, classified according to the following scale:
Omnimode gastrophy achieves international food standards thanks to the campaigns waged by industrial armies!
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| (Image from the Perry-Castañeda Library of the University of Texas at Austin) |
As in celestial mechanics, the basic force underlying Harmony is attraction. Everyone's actions are driven by passions and follow attraction. Society must thus be organized in such a way as to balance all attractions.
Every member of the whirl (phalanx) is led by attraction to practice about 40 crafts; for each one of them (s)he joins a group. Groups dealing with close specialities are hierarchically assembled into graduated series. The 3 distributive passions are satisfied thanks to the following features:
Individual egoism is counterbalanced by the individual's membership in the group. Group egoism is counterbalanced by the participation of each of its members to other groups.
Harmonian education starts from practice, leading then to theory. Children learn first to refine their senses, next start practising various crafts to which they are attracted. Only after mastering various practical skills are they taught to read and write.
An exegesis of André Breton's
Ode à Charles Fourier.
Fourierism and Utopia in the USA.
| The Crown Imperial (Fritillaria imperialis), Charles Fourier's emblematic flower |  |
According to popular wisdom, it symbolizes majesty. For Fourier, it represents the true scientist or artist living poorly in Civilization, whose worth is not recognized, and who has only his enthusiasm to sustain himself. |
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