Editing Socialism (section)

=== Utopian versus scientific ===
{{main|Scientific socialism|Utopian socialism}}
Utopian socialism is a term used to define the first currents of modern socialist thought as exemplified by the work of [[Henri de Saint-Simon]], [[Charles Fourier]] and [[Robert Owen]] which inspired [[Karl Marx]] and other early socialists.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/heavenonearth/synopsis.html |title=Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism |publisher=[[PBS]] |access-date=15 December 2011 |archive-date=4 January 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060104041306/http://www.pbs.org/heavenonearth/synopsis.html}}</ref> Visions of imaginary ideal societies, which competed with revolutionary social democratic movements, were viewed as not being grounded in the material conditions of society and as reactionary.<ref name=Draper>{{cite book |last=Draper |first=Hal |title=Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution, Volume IV: Critique of Other Socialisms |year=1990 |publisher=[[Monthly Review Press]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0853457985 |pages=1–21}}</ref> Although it is technically possible for any set of ideas or any person living at any time in history to be a utopian socialist, the term is most often applied to those socialists who lived in the first quarter of the 19th century who were ascribed the label "utopian" by later socialists as a negative term to imply naivete and dismiss their ideas as fanciful or unrealistic.{{sfnp|Newman|2005}}

Religious sects whose members live communally such as the [[Hutterites]] are not usually called "utopian socialists", although their way of living is a prime example. They have been categorised as [[religious socialists]] by some. Similarly, modern [[intentional communities]] based on socialist ideas could also be categorised as "utopian socialist". For Marxists, the development of capitalism in Western Europe provided a material basis for the possibility of bringing about socialism because according to ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]'' "[w]hat the bourgeoisie produces above all is its own grave diggers",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marx |first1=Karl |author1-link=Karl Marx |last2=Engels |first2=Friedrich |author2-link=Friedrich Engels |title=[[The Communist Manifesto]]}}</ref> namely the working class, which must become conscious of the historical objectives set it by society.