Profile Major Works Resources

Morelly, ?-?

Not to be confused with Abbe Morellet, Morelly was a mysterious Enlightenment-era French writer about which very little is known. In his famous utopian poem the Basiliad, Morelly outlined the rudiments of his communistic vision of society, which he followed upon by a more elaborate defense in his Code de la nature.  Morelly identified the "desire of ownership" (i.e. private property) as the source of all evil and crime. Argued that in a communistic society, with centrally-regulated distribution of goods -- every man contributing according to his ability and receiving according to his need.--  evil as such would be eradicated and natural man would emerge. 

Morelly's work echoes the contemporary contributions of Rousseau, who's most famous work was published around the same time.  But Morelly is far more radical. Morelly is suspected by some to be an alternative ego and pen-name of Diderot himself.    He has been variously identified as a régent in Vitry-le-François, and referred to (possibly erroneously) as Etienne-Gabriel Morelly, son of a civil servant of that same town, who's father may have been responsible for the first few works attributed to him.  Paulette Taieb reviews the disputes over Morelly's identity.

 

  


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Major Works of Morelly

  • Essai sur l'esprit humain, 1743
  • Essais sur le coeur humain, ou principes naturels de l'éducation, 1745
  • Physique de la beauté, ou Pouvoir naturel de ses charmes, 1748
  • Le Prince, les délices des cœurs, ou Traité des qualités d'un grand roi et sistème général d'un sage gouvernement, 1750
  • Naufrage des isle flottantes, ou Basiliade du célèbre Pilpaï, 1753
  • Code de la nature, ou le véritable Esprit de ses Loix, 1755. (trans. as Code of Nature, or the True Spirit of the Laws, excerpts)
  • Lettres de Louis XIV aux princes de l'Europe, à ses généraux recueillies par M. Rose secrétaire du Cabinet avec des remarques historiques de M. Morelly. 1756

 


HET

 

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Resources on  Morelly

  • "Morelly" in C. Coquelin and G.U. Guillaumin, editors, 1852, Dictionnaire de l'économie politique [1864 ed.]
  • "Morelly" in L. Say and J. Chailley-Bert, editors, 1892, Nouveau Dictionnaire de l'économie politique
  • "Morelly" in R.H. Inglis Palgrave, editor, 1894-1901 Dictionary of Political Economy [1901 ed.]
  • "Morelly" at Paulette Taieb
  • "Morelly and the Code de La Nature" by Yves Guyot, in Socialist Fallacies (1910) at Library of Economics and Liberty.
  • Wikipedia

 

 
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