Étienne-Gabriel Morelly

Étienne-Gabriel Morelly (French: [mɔʁɛli]; 1717, Vitry-le-François – 1778) was a French utopian thinker and novelist. An otherwise "obscure tax official", Morelly wrote two books on education and a critique of Montesquieu. As well he is thought to be (perhaps erroneously) the author of The Code of Nature, which was published anonymously in France in 1755. This book, a basis of thought for later socialist and Communist thinkers, criticized the society of his day, promoted a social order without avarice and proposed a constitution intended to lead to an egalitarian society without property, marriage, church or police.

Outline

According to The Code of Nature, "...where no property exists, none of its pernicious consequences could exist...." As Morelly believed that almost all social and moral ills were a consequence of private property, his proposed constitution eliminates most private property.

Because of this latter characteristic of his utopia, Morelly is often seen as a significant forerunner of later socialist and communist thinkers. François-Noël Babeuf, Charles Fourier, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Louis Blanc, Friedrich Engels, and Karl Marx all discussed Morelly's ideas in their own writing.