Ceri Crossley
106
the theory of the circulus to challenge capitalist notions of the accumulation and circulation of wealth. His ideas concerning the circulus
were formed in the 1830s and 1840s but they made their greatest impact during the Second Empire.
3 After the coup d’état of 1851 Leroux
fled France and sought refuge in Great Britain. Like Victor Hugo, but
in much more straitened circumstances, he spent much of his exile in
the Channel Islands, returning to France after the amnesty of 1859. In
his eyes the circulus gave priority to agriculture over industry, reconnected town and country, and inscribed humankind more generally
within the processes of the natural world. Ultimately, the circulus became a form of theodicy, disculpating God (or Nature) from responsibility for evil and injustice. Leroux also opposed the use of chemical
fertilizers and, for this reason, he stands as a significant forerunner of
the contemporary movement in organic farming.
Philosophically Leroux belongs among the group of ageing
Romantic humanitarians who, confronted by the rise of atheistic scientific materialism during the Second Empire, nevertheless held fast to
their conviction that some form of belief in God was essential for the
moral life to flourish. He wrestled with the problem of evil and with
the reality of suffering. He recalled Joseph de Maistre’s view that
there was not a single instant of duration when one living being was
not being devoured by another. Life arose from sexual reproduction
and was maintained by the killing, absorption and assimilation of
other creatures:
Manger, voilà la loi primitive, l’origine et la clef de tous les phénomènes. Les
anciens l’ont bien compris, et leurs langues l’ont bien exprimé. ESSE, être, disent
___________________________
my thanks to Professor Viard for his invaluable help in the preparation of this article.
For
accurate
information
on
Leroux
and
his
writings
see
http://www.amisdepierreleroux.org/index.htm. See also (S.) Alexandrian, Le
Socialisme romantique (Paris: Seuil, 1979), pp. 243-75; Jack Bakunin, Pierre Leroux
and the Birth of Democratic Socialism (1797-1848) (New York: Revisionist Press,
1976); Armelle Le Bras-Chopard, De l’Egalité dans la différence: Le Socialisme de
Pierre Leroux (Paris: Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1986); Jérôme
Peignot, Pierre Leroux: Inventeur du socialisme (Paris: Klincksieck, 1988); Vincent
Peillon, Pierre Leroux et le socialisme républicain: une tradition philosophique
(Latresne: Le Bord de L’Eau, 2003).
3 Leroux first published his ideas about the circulus in March 1846 in his journal, La
Revue sociale. See David Owen Evans, Le socialisme romantique: Pierre Leroux et
ses contemporains (Paris: Marcel Rivière, 1947), p. 247.
106
the theory of the circulus to challenge capitalist notions of the accumulation and circulation of wealth. His ideas concerning the circulus
were formed in the 1830s and 1840s but they made their greatest impact during the Second Empire.
3 After the coup d’état of 1851 Leroux
fled France and sought refuge in Great Britain. Like Victor Hugo, but
in much more straitened circumstances, he spent much of his exile in
the Channel Islands, returning to France after the amnesty of 1859. In
his eyes the circulus gave priority to agriculture over industry, reconnected town and country, and inscribed humankind more generally
within the processes of the natural world. Ultimately, the circulus became a form of theodicy, disculpating God (or Nature) from responsibility for evil and injustice. Leroux also opposed the use of chemical
fertilizers and, for this reason, he stands as a significant forerunner of
the contemporary movement in organic farming.
Philosophically Leroux belongs among the group of ageing
Romantic humanitarians who, confronted by the rise of atheistic scientific materialism during the Second Empire, nevertheless held fast to
their conviction that some form of belief in God was essential for the
moral life to flourish. He wrestled with the problem of evil and with
the reality of suffering. He recalled Joseph de Maistre’s view that
there was not a single instant of duration when one living being was
not being devoured by another. Life arose from sexual reproduction
and was maintained by the killing, absorption and assimilation of
other creatures:
Manger, voilà la loi primitive, l’origine et la clef de tous les phénomènes. Les
anciens l’ont bien compris, et leurs langues l’ont bien exprimé. ESSE, être, disent
___________________________
my thanks to Professor Viard for his invaluable help in the preparation of this article.
For
accurate
information
on
Leroux
and
his
writings
see
http://www.amisdepierreleroux.org/index.htm. See also (S.) Alexandrian, Le
Socialisme romantique (Paris: Seuil, 1979), pp. 243-75; Jack Bakunin, Pierre Leroux
and the Birth of Democratic Socialism (1797-1848) (New York: Revisionist Press,
1976); Armelle Le Bras-Chopard, De l’Egalité dans la différence: Le Socialisme de
Pierre Leroux (Paris: Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1986); Jérôme
Peignot, Pierre Leroux: Inventeur du socialisme (Paris: Klincksieck, 1988); Vincent
Peillon, Pierre Leroux et le socialisme républicain: une tradition philosophique
(Latresne: Le Bord de L’Eau, 2003).
3 Leroux first published his ideas about the circulus in March 1846 in his journal, La
Revue sociale. See David Owen Evans, Le socialisme romantique: Pierre Leroux et
ses contemporains (Paris: Marcel Rivière, 1947), p. 247.