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Conclusion: thymos and the dignity of socialism
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In conclusion. how does socialism relate to the other “isms” of the 19 century?
We’ve seen how they all began with Rousseau’s emphasis on the importance of the
“inner life” and the belief that it was society that must adapt to its promptings, not
vice versa.

Modern economic thinking has returned us to the Enlightenment assumption that
people are motivated by reason or desire. Thus, it assumes that as consumers we
always look for the lowest price or as employees we always go for the highest pay.

However as modern cognitive scientist Daniel Kahneman has shown, our rational
brain is often overridden by our emotional brain. Even when people strike for higher
pay, the issue often isn’t money, but status or respect; in other words, dignity.

We saw last session that feminists feel that the way the achievements of people like
Ada Lovelace have been overlooked insults the dignity of women. This is also true of
socialism. Poverty and inequality undermine the dignity of those who experience

them. Our need to have our worth recognised has no obvious name. Plato called it
thymos. What drove socialism was not rational economic calculation or material
envy, but the feeling that experiencing poverty and inequality affronts our dignity.
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This is what links it to the other 19 century “isms.” They are all born in our inner life,
in our need for our dignity to be recognised, and in the belief that society must be
changed if necessary to achieve this.

Finally, two examples of how socialism is grounded in dignity. Just before his

execution for conspiracy in 1797, the first modern socialist, Gracchus Babeuf, wrote a
heart-rending letter to his wife and children. It includes these words:

“I don’t know how my memory will be appreciated, though I believe I carried myself in
an irreproachable manner. Don’t think that I feel any regret for having sacrificed
myself for the most beautiful of causes; even if all I did for it was useless, I fulfilled my

task. The only property that will be left to you will be my reputation. And I am sure
that you and the children will be consoled in having possession of it. You will love
hearing all feeling and upright hearts say, in speaking of your spouse: he was
perfectly virtuous. Farewell. I hold on to the earth by a thread, which tomorrow shall
break. This is certain, I see it clearly. At least it is sweet to die with a conscience as
clean as mine. Write to my mother and my sisters. Send them, by coach or otherwise,
my defence as soon as it’s published. Tell them how I died, and try to make these
good people understand that such a death is glorious and far from being
dishonourable.”