This is a drawing of social theorist Claude-Henri De Ronvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon who founded the movement. 

The St. Simonians were a group of utopian socialists based in France in the early 19th century. The social theorist Claude-Henri De Ronvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon was the founder of the movement, often credited with giving birth to French socialism. The group’s vision largely centered around a belief in meritocracy and the possibility of human progress, while also containing a decidedly utilitarian streak. In the 1830s, St. Simonian missionaries began travelling to England in order to promote the abolition of private property, inheritance, and marriage.

In particular, the St. Simonians’ scientific approach to examining social affairs resonated with Mill, even if he considered the content of their beliefs about property/inheritance too extreme. He notes, “I was greatly struck with the connected view which they for the first time presented to me, of the natural order of human progress…this doctrine harmonized well with my existing notions, to which it seemed to give a scientific shape” (Mill 90-91). Notably, he casts the St. Simonians’ work as complementing and structuring his existing beliefs rather than changing their content. This quote also belies Mill’s deductive reasoning approach and commitment to theory. Moreover, he describes how he “obtained a clearer conception than ever before of the peculiarities of an era of transition in opinion, and ceased to mistake the moral and intellectual characteristics of such an era, for the normal attributes of humanity” (Mill 91). The St. Simonians thus influenced Mill’s ability to see the mind as a body capable of change and shaped by the era of one’s existence.

Crucially, the St. Simonians were staunch believers in the equality between men and women, which resonated deeply with Mill and contributed to his seminal work The Subjugation of Women.

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