William Thompson (philosopher) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
William Thompson
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Portrait of W. Thompson by George Chinnery, c. 1830
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| Born | 30 June 1775 |
| Died | 28 March 1833 (aged 57) Rosscarbery, County Cork, Ireland
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| Nationality | Anglo-Irish |
| Era | Modern philosophy
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| Region | Western philosophy |
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Main interests
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Notable ideas
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Influenced
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William Thompson (1775 – 28 March 1833) was an Irish writer and thinker. He was also a social reformer. He started as a supporter of utilitarianism. Later, he became an early critic of how capitalism worked. His ideas helped shape the cooperative movement, trade unions, and the Chartist movement. He also influenced Karl Marx.
William Thompson was born into a wealthy Anglo-Irish family in Cork. His family owned land and businesses. After his death, he tried to leave his property to the cooperative movement. This led to a long court case. His family successfully fought to cancel his will. This decision to give his estate to the cooperative movement happened after he visited the Ralahine Commune. This was a pioneering cooperative community.
James Connolly, a Marxist writer, called Thompson the "first Irish socialist." He saw Thompson as someone who thought like Marx before Marx did. Marx himself mentioned Thompson in his writings.
Contents
Life
William Thompson was born in Cork. His father, John Thompson, was a very rich merchant and even the Mayor of Cork in 1794. When his father died in 1814, William inherited a small fleet of trading ships and land near Glandore, West Cork.
Unlike many wealthy landowners, William lived on his estate. He spent a lot of time with the people who rented land from him. He brought new farming ideas, services, and education for children. He wanted to make their lives better and help them become more successful.
By the 1830s, William was sick with a chest problem. He died on March 28, 1833. He never married and had no children. Thompson did not believe in God.
Ideas
William Thompson loved to study the ideas of the Enlightenment. He was especially interested in the ideas of Condorcet. Because of this, Thompson became a strong believer in equality and democracy. He supported the French Revolution. This earned him the nickname "Red Republican" from the people in Cork society. He also supported Catholic emancipation, which meant giving more rights to Catholics. This made him even more different from his wealthy Protestant family.
Thompson was very impressed by the ideas of Jeremy Bentham, who believed in utilitarianism. This idea focuses on doing the "greatest good for the greatest number" of people. Thompson wrote to Bentham and they became friends. He even stayed at Bentham's house in London for several months in 1821–22.
Thompson also read and wrote to other thinkers like James Mill, William Godwin, and Thomas Malthus. He wanted to combine the scientific side of economics with the moral side of utilitarianism. He called this new combination "social science". Thompson was the first person to use this term.
Thinking About Money and Society
Thompson was inspired by the different ideas of Godwin and Malthus. This led him to study how wealth is shared in society. In 1824, he published a book called An Inquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth. He also learned about the ideas of French thinkers like Charles Fourier and Henri Saint-Simon.
In his book, Thompson agreed with Adam Smith's idea that the value of something comes from the work put into it. However, he believed that when capitalists (owners of businesses) took most of the "surplus value" (the extra value created by workers), it was unfair. He was the first to use the term "surplus value," which Karl Marx later made famous. Thompson disagreed with the idea that workers' wages could not increase without causing more poverty. He saw this idea as serving the interests of capitalists.
Thompson believed that wealth should be shared equally. He used the utilitarian idea of "the greatest good for the greatest number" to support this.
One of Thompson's friends, John Minter Morgan, said that Thompson was the first to use the word competitive to describe the economic system of his time. Historian Max Nettlau noted that Thompson's ideas changed over time. He started by asking for workers to get the full value of their labor. Eventually, he believed in "communism," which meant sharing everything equally without limits.
In 1827, another socialist, Thomas Hodgskin, wrote Labour Defended. This book also said that landlords and capitalists unfairly took most of what workers produced. Hodgskin thought that a reformed competitive system could bring fairness. Thompson disagreed. He wrote Labor Rewarded to defend the idea of cooperative communism, where everyone shares equally.
Supporting Women's Rights
Thompson believed that too many people, especially in Ireland, could lead to more poverty. His ideas about women's rights were greatly shaped by his close friendship with Anna Wheeler. He met Wheeler while staying with Bentham. They were part of a group of thinkers who discussed important social issues.
When James Mill wrote that only men should be allowed to vote, both Wheeler and Thompson strongly disagreed. They wrote a book together called Appeal of One Half the Human Race, Women, Against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, to Retain Them in Political, and thence in Civil and Domestic Slavery. This book argued for equal rights for women.
His Diet
For the last 17 years of his life, Thompson did not smoke and avoided strong drinks. He also became a vegetarian. He said these habits helped him focus on his reading and writing.
Thompson ate bread and jam for breakfast. For lunch, he would have potatoes and turnips. He did not eat butter or eggs, but he loved honey. His farm produced a lot of honey, and he would give his workers honey tea, his favorite drink.
Influence on the Cooperative Movement
Thompson was a key figure in the cooperative movement. This movement aimed to create communities where people worked together and shared resources.
Disagreements with Robert Owen
Sometimes, Thompson and others in the cooperative movement are grouped under the name "Owenism." However, Thompson and many others disagreed with Robert Owen. Owen was seen as too controlling and not democratic enough. Thompson also did not trust Owen's efforts to get support from rich and powerful people. Thompson believed that wealthy people would not truly support workers' freedom because it would threaten their own power. He also felt that workers in a cooperative community should eventually own the land and property themselves.
Thompson gained many followers in the cooperative movement for these views. To show they were different from Owen's ideas, this group started using the terms "socialist" or "communionist." (The word "socialist" was first used in print in 1827 in a letter to "The Cooperative Magazine" by Thompson's group, though Owen used it privately earlier).
These differences led to a public disagreement between Thompson and Owen at a meeting in London in 1832. Owen believed they should wait for government and rich investors to support large cooperative communities. Thompson and his supporters argued that they should start small, independent communities using their own resources. The argument was not settled at that meeting. Thompson was too sick to attend the next meeting and died five months later.
Influence on Karl Marx
Many important thinkers have said that Karl Marx owed a lot to William Thompson. Harold Laski said that Thompson "laid the foundations" for Marxism. James Connolly greatly admired Thompson, calling him an "original thinker" and "superior to any of the Utopian Socialists." He also said Thompson had a "merciless fidelity to truth."
Karl Marx discovered Thompson's work in 1845. He mentioned Thompson in his books, including The Poverty of Philosophy and Capital. Marx studied Thompson's book, "An Inquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth Most Conducive to Human Happiness."
Selected Publications
- State of the Education in the South of Ireland, 1818.
- An Inquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth Most Conducive to Human Happiness; applied to the Newly Proposed System of Voluntary Equality of Wealth, 1824.
- Appeal of One Half the Human Race, Women, Against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, to Retain Them in Political, and thence in Civil and Domestic Slavery, 1825.
- Labor Rewarded. The Claims of Labor and Capital Conciliated: or, How to Secure to Labor the Whole Products of Its Exertions, 1827.
- Practical Directions for the Speedy and Economical Establishment of Communities on the Principles of Mutual Co-operation, United Possessions and Equality of Exertions and the Means of Enjoyments, 1830.
See also
- Utopian socialism
