Saint-Simon (Henri de Saint-Simon)

Henri de Saint-Simon was a 19th-century French thinker and social reformer who believed society should be organized around cooperation and progress. He emphasized the importance of scientific and technological development, advocating for a society led by talented engineers, scientists, and industrialists to improve social welfare. Saint-Simon rejected traditional aristocracy, instead promoting a merit-based system where those who contributed to progress would lead. His ideas laid groundwork for later social and political movements focused on applying scientific principles to social organization and economic planning, influencing early socialist thought and futurist visions of a more rational, productive society.