Going against Fourier’s advice, who kept stigmatizing “dangerous allies”, some of the master’s disciples tried to consolidate social science by basing it on a new type of science : phrenology. The epistemological pertinence of this program is founded on the desire, shared by both Gall and Fourier, to decode the hieroglyphical language of human nature that reveals its basic goodness. The two doctrines join together on this point and propose a new alliance. Designed by God, passions and capacities are fundamental and unchanging forces that govern humanity and allow it to accomplish its destiny and find happiness. This socialist anthropology offers the basis of a social science by proposing a new human organization in accordance with this natural law. The "grand corps phalanstérien" allows for the development of the total or generic man united in flesh and in spirit (which had been an on-going battle since early Christianity), creating an entity and allowing for man to achieve the universality of his being.

Loïc RIGNOL est docteur en histoire. Il a soutenu en 2003 une thèse sur Les Hiéroglyphes de la Nature. Science de l’homme et Science sociale dans la pensée socialiste en France. 1830-1851, dans laquelle il élabore une épistémologie du premier socialisme français. Il a collaboré récemment au Dictionnaire historique et critique du racisme, à paraître en 2009 aux PUF, sous la direction de P.-A. Taguieff.