Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Principal events in Fourier's life
- A brief note on further reading (in English)
- Translator's introduction
- The Theory of the Four Movements and of the General Destinies
- 1808 Introduction
- Preliminary discourse
- Plan
- First part: Exposition of some branches of the general destinies
- Second part: Description of the various branches of the private or domestic destinies
- Third part: Confirmation derived from the inadequacy of the inexact sciences to deal with all the problems that the civilised mechanism presents
- Omitted chapter
- Note A
- Advice to the civilised
- 1818 Introduction
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Second part: Description of the various branches of the private or domestic destinies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Principal events in Fourier's life
- A brief note on further reading (in English)
- Translator's introduction
- The Theory of the Four Movements and of the General Destinies
- 1808 Introduction
- Preliminary discourse
- Plan
- First part: Exposition of some branches of the general destinies
- Second part: Description of the various branches of the private or domestic destinies
- Third part: Confirmation derived from the inadequacy of the inexact sciences to deal with all the problems that the civilised mechanism presents
- Omitted chapter
- Note A
- Advice to the civilised
- 1818 Introduction
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Summary
Argument
There is light on the horizon: we are moving on to dissertations which will contain nothing scientific and which will be comprehensible to everybody.
In the first part I gave the curious a glimpse of the great phenomena to come. Here, for pleasure-lovers, is a glimpse of the various pleasures which the combined order can permit them to enjoy in this present generation, as soon as it is organised. I emphasise how close at hand this good fortune is because nobody likes delays where pleasure is concerned, especially in a time when so much unhappiness has made everyone so eager for it.
By giving some advance sketches of the happiness that is impending, my already expressed intention is to awaken the reader's interest in the theory of association and attraction which promises so many delights, and to make him want the theory to be practicable. As people come to desire the truth and accuracy of the calculus, they will gradually get used to examining and studying this attraction on which such large hopes are founded.
Accordingly, I intend to reveal my theory just a little at a time, disseminating it imperceptibly in each treatise, only bringing it all together as a body of doctrine later. In brief, I mean to make the amounts of theory proportionate to the amount of curiosity I am able to arouse. I believe these precautions are necessary in order to ensure a welcome for a treatise which would be ignored, like all metaphysics, if I suddenly produced it all at once, without preparing the way.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Fourier: 'The Theory of the Four Movements' , pp. 107 - 108Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996