WGS160Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Thomas Hobbes, Utopian Socialism, Bourgeoisie
2 Nov 2017
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Small groups of radicals publicly challenging the prohibition on birth control. Us: the first challenges came from socialists, today identified as utopian socialists . 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s: often called the perfectionists because of their determination to create perfection here on earth. Got their birthcontrol ideas primarily from british malthusians and neo- Malthusian tradition: marked pessimistic and skeptical about any except minimal reforms. Several perfectionist groups established rural communities where they practised reproductive control. Despite their very few members, their influence was greater than their size. 19th century britain: population growth and the possibility of its control became for the first time a public controversy. Development of a secular, capitalist science of economics helped remove population from the area of ineluctable national events to an area that seemed open to human manipulation. Created a contradiction between protestant-bourgeois attitudes of sexual prudery and fears of overpopulation.
