De la tradición utópica en OccidenteRobert Owen

Abstract

In terms of presentation, it has been decided to present a study in three parts. In the first part of our study, the reader will have the opportunity to become familiar with an introduction to utopian thinking. Such an introduction to utopian thinking gives us the opportunity to re-think a recurring tradition in Western thought in the context of a comprehensive evolutionary model, in which we will see the way in which utopian thinking goes beyond the academic limits that have defined this thinking in recent centuries. Thus, we will try to address the way in which utopian thinking appears in terms of specific historical events amongst which, crisis is the common denominator. This was true in ancient civilisations and, in the same way, continued to be so in later Western culture, a West that seems to follow utopia in an effort to find and redefine rationality and culture. The crisis and the utopian solution as a response to such a crisis do not appear identical across different historical and religious contexts, for which it is necessary to study and contextualise the crisis, and to understand and provide context to the utopian solution to the crisis. In the second part we begin to explore the figure of Robert Owen, who is almost completely unknown today. Here we perform a modest study of Robert Owen and his time, paying attention to intellectual and ideological issues and relating the author with the traditions of thought that carried more weight in the context of that era. Special attention will be paid to researching the relationship between Robert Owen and the British radical tradition on one hand, and with Romanticism as a broad cultural movement on the other. The second part will continue with an introduction to Robert Owen in which the importance of the New Lanark and New Harmony projects will be analyzed in terms of Owen's central concern with the problem of rationality-irrationality. Later, in a separate section, we will present the form in which Owen projects his ideas about rationality-irrationality on issues such as Social reform and education. It is not a well-known fact that Robert Owen was a determining factor in the configuration of modern, Western education systems. Finally, the third part of our study is a biographical approach to Robert Owen and his intellectual path. This is our particular reading of the intellectual development of Robert Owen. In the third part, special attention is paid to his character and the way in which the Welsh author develops in terms of history and philosophy. In contrast with previous biographical efforts the study adopts a strict chronological tone. In some biographies and more well-known studies of Robert Owen, such as those by Sargant, Podmore or Cole, it is difficult to find an approach with an emphasis on strict chronology. In this paper, with all the difficulties this entails, the history of Owenism and of Robert Owen has been approached with careful attention to chronological matters. In an intellectual sense, one of our main contributions regarding Robert Owen is that of seeing the way in which the author develops in relation to both reason and Western history. We also place special attention on Owen's reception of the romantic period.