The Fellowship of the New Life
The Fellowship of the New Life was a left-wing British movement in the late 19th century that gave rise to the better-known Fabian Society .
history
The comradeship was founded in 1883. Her head was the Scottish intellectual Thomas Davidson , who lived in London . Members included poets such as gay activist Edward Carpenter and John Davidson , animal rights activist Henry Stephens Salt , sex researcher Havelock Ellis , feminist and lesbian activist Edith Lees , South African novelist Olive Schreiner, and future Fabian secretary Edward R. Pease . One magazine was called Seed-Time .
The goal was to "cultivate a perfect character in every way". Society should be reshaped through an example of clean, simple living. Many advocated pacifism , vegetarianism and a simple life modeled on Leo Tolstoy , Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson . When some wanted to implement this as a political movement, it was decided to found their own organization, which anyone could join as desired. The Fabian Society, founded in 1884, became more successful, the Fellowship dissolved in 1898.
Davidson was under the influence of the Italian philosopher and priest Antonio Rosmini-Serbati . According to him, pure intelligence can bring about a better society. From 1883 Davidson lectured at his home in Chelsea , attended by a number of intellectuals. Davidson was primarily interested in intellectual history. In 1883 a program of the Fellowship of initially nine members appeared, the Vita Nuova .
The split-off Fabian Society was a much more socialist movement than the Fellowship. Edward Pease said the goal of Fabianism is to regain general welfare and happiness. It was from her that the Labor Party was founded in 1900.
literature
- Stefan Berger : Unequal sisters? The British Labor Party and German Social Democracy in comparison 1900–1931 . Bonn 1997 ISBN 978-3801240820
- Kenneth Manton: The fellowship of the new life: English ethical socialism reconsidered , History of Political Thought, 24, 2, 2000, pp. 282-304
- Bruce Philip Smith: The Dilemmas of Ethical Socialism: the Fellowship of the New Life and the Emergence of the Fabian Society, 1883–1889. Williams College, Dept. of History, 1986
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ralph Dumain, "The Autodidact Project": "The Development of Thomas Davidson's Religious & Social Thought" by James A. Good. Retrieved June 26, 2020 .
- ^ HN Gardiner, William Knight: Memorials of Thomas Davidson, the Wandering Scholar. In: The Philosophical Review . tape 17 , no. July 4 , 1908.