“An Address to the Superintendents of Manufactories, and to those Individuals Generally, who, by Giving Employment to an Aggregated Population, May Easily Adopt the Means to form the Sentiments and Manners of Such a Population”, In a New View of Society, or, Essays on the Formation of the Human Character: Preparatory to the Development of a Plan for Gradually Ameliorating

Abstract

[The years 1813–1814 were pivotal in Owen’s political career. After having garnered the support of progressive business partners like William Allen, Jeremy Bentham and John Walker, he found the confidence to publicise his social system with his New View of Society, or Essays on the Formation of Character 30(1813–1816). The first two essays in the book outlined Owen’s deterministic philosophies, while the third and fourth explored ways to put these principles into practice. In the preface to the third essay, Owen urged his fellow master-manufacturers to imitate the regime of benevolent, paternalistic governance he had set up at New Lanark since the year 1800. Refusing to objectify factory workers as mere “hands”, as was common at the time in accordance with Malthusian principles, Owen envisaged the union of man and machine in a joint quest for social and economic progress, thereby refusing to separate his duties as a businessman and as a citizen (Bestor [1950] 2018; Siméon 2017, 21).]