Pierre Leroux
French philosopher and political economist (1797-1871)
Pierre Henri Leroux (French: [ləʁu]; 7 April 1797 – 12 April 1871) was a French philosopher and political economist.
Life
Leroux was born in Paris, the son of an artisan.
His education was interrupted by the death of his father, which compelled him to support his mother and family. Having worked first as a mason and then as a compositor, he joined Paul-François Dubois in the foundation of Le Globe which became in 1831 the official organ of the Saint-Simonian community, of which he became a prominent member. In November of the same year, when Prosper Enfantin became leader of the Saint-Simonians and preached the enfranchisement of women and the functions of the couple-prêtre, Leroux separated himself from the sect. In 1834, he published an essay entitled "Individualism and Socialism" ("De l’individualisme et du socialisme") which, despite its message of scepticism towards both tendencies, introduced the term "socialism" in French political discourse. In 1834, with Jean Reynaud, who had seceded with him, he founded the Encyclopédie nouvelle. Amongst the articles which he inserted in it were De l'égalité and Refutation de l'éclectisme, which afterwards appeared as separate works.
In 1840, he published his treatise De l'humanité (2nd ed. 1845), which contains the fullest exposition of his system, and was regarded as the philosophical manifesto of the Humanitarians.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Pierre Leroux” is french philosopher and political economist (1797-1871). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Pierre, Leroux and French, not as a finished interpretation.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q704649. VIAF identifies the subject as 39380209. The Library of Congress control number is n50050426. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1797, 1871, 1831 and 1834.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pierre Leroux” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.