Mich: From equal worth to equality of opportunity: social debates in France in 1830-1840’

Adrien Lutz

Recent researches in history of political philosophy show how the spirit of equality in France after the revolution of 1789 was at the cornerstone of many streams of social thought opening the way to socialism and communism. Hence both doctrines – through the work of Saint-Simon (1817), Charles Fourier (1825), the Saint-Simonians (1829), Louis Blanc (1839), Étienne Cabet (1841) and Constantin Pecqueur (1842) – were inspired by the French struggle against privilèges. All these thinkers argued in favour of “equal worth”: every one deserves to be treated equally. However being “treated equally” deserves some enlightenment as soon as they all adopted several definitions and approaches.

Indeed we aim at showing how this social thought was based upon specific aphorisms which will then be used by communist and socialist theorists: “from/to each according to his/her ability, to each ability according to his/her needs/works.” Moreover we aim at shedding light on the dichotomy between the “needs approach” based upon egalitarianism and the “works approach” which paved the way for the premises of equality of opportunity.