Note 485 — Chapter II · : SAINT-SIMON, THE SAINT-SIMONIANS, AND THE BEGINNINGS OF COLLECTIVISM

Littré has disputed Comte’s indebtedness to Saint-Simon in his Auguste Comte et le Positivisme. Saint-Simon, however, in his preface to Système industriel remarks that in political matters the jurists form a connecting link between feudal government on the one hand and industrial government on the other, just as the metaphysicians are intermediate between the theological and the scientific régimes. In a note which he adds he states his position still more clearly (Œuvres, vol. v, p. 9). It is true that the Système industriel dates from 1821, and is consequently subsequent to the beginning of the friendly relations between Comte and Saint-Simon. But textual evidence, however precise, cannot decide the question of the reciprocal influence which these two Messiahs exercised upon one another. A similar idea had already found expression in Turgot’s work.