Stephen Pearl Andrews

Stephen Pearl Andrews (22 March 1812 – 21 May 1886) was an American individualist anarchist and author of several books on the topic.

Early life and work

Born in Templeton, Massachusetts, he went to Louisiana at age 18 and studied and practiced law there; appalled by slavery, he became an abolitionist. He was the first counsel of Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines in her celebrated suits. Having moved to Texas in 1839, he and his family were almost killed because of his abolitionist lectures and had to flee in 1843. Andrews travelled to England where he was unsuccessful at raising funds for the abolitionist movement back in America.

While in England, Andrews became interested in Pitman's new shorthand writing system and upon his return to the U.S. he taught and wrote about the shorthand writing system, and devised a popular system of phonographic reporting. To further this he published a series of instruction books and edited two journals, the "AngloSaxon" and the "Propagandist". He devised a "scientific" language, "Alwato," in which he was wont to converse and correspond with pupils. At the time of his death he was compiling a dictionary of it, which was published posthumously.

A remarkable linguist, he also became interested in phonetics and the study of foreign languages, eventually learning 30 languages. By the end of the 1840s he began to focus his energies on utopian communities. He and fellow individualist anarchist Josiah Warren (who was responsible for Andrew's conversion to radical individualism) established Modern Times in Brentwood, NY, (1851). Then, in (1857), he established Unity Home in New York City. By the 1860s he was propounding an ideal society called Pantarchy, and from this he moved on to a philosophy he called "universology", which stressed the unity of all knowledge and activities.

Andrews was one of the first to use the word "scientology". The word is defined as a neologism in his 1871 book "The Primary Synopsis of Universology and Alwato: The New Scientific Universal Language". [cite book
title=The Primary Synopsis of Universology and Alwato: The New Scientific Universal Language
first=Stephen Pearl
last=Andrews
location=New York
publisher=Dion Thomas
year=1871
oclc=3591669
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=WpwsVIfv5CcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22The+Primary+Synopsis+of+Universology+and+Alwato%22&lr=&as_brr=0 At p. xiii, "Scientology" is defined as "the Science of the Scientismus, or of that Secondary Department of Being, or Stage of Evolution, in which Scientism, the Spirit or Principle of Science (or of that which is analogous with Science) preponderates". ( [http://books.google.com/books?id=WpwsVIfv5CcC&pg=PR13&vq=scientology&dq=%22The+Primary+Synopsis+of+Universology+and+Alwato%22&lr=&as_brr=0 Google Books link] )]

Wage theory

Like most of the nineteenth century individualist anarchists, and unlike the anarcho-communists, he supported the right of employment and wage labor. However, he believed that in the system within which he was living that individuals were not receiving a wage commensurate with the amount of labor they exerted. He said:

For Andrews, to be paid "justly" was to be paid according to the "Cost Principle," which held that individuals should be paid according to the amount of labor they exert rather than according to the benefit that another receives from that labor (the latter being called the "Value Principle"). To help make this simple, he, after Josiah Warren, advocated an economy that uses "labor notes." Labor notes are money marked in labor hours (adjusted for different types of labor based on their difficulty or repugnance). In this way, it is not how much the employer values the employee's labor that determine's the employee's pay but simply on how much the employee has labored. For similar reasons he did not believe people should be paid interest for loaning capital; in other words, he did not see the loaning of capital as requiring any labor or deprivation on the part of the loaner. He insisted that the benefit received from goods or labor is not a just measure of price. [As explained in "The Science of Society" by Stephen Pearl Andrews. Nichols, 1854. pp. 186-214]

bquote|Every variety of interpretation has been put upon my opinions, usually the least favorable which the imagination of the writer could devise, with a view, apparently, of cultivating still further the natural prejudice existing in the public mind against any one bold enough to agitate the delicate and difficult question of the true relations of the sexes, and the legitimate role which the Passions were intended to play in the economy of the Universe.

In the absence of any readiness on the part of the public to know the truth on the subject, false, extravagant and ridiculous notions have flooded the country in its stead.

I reject and repudiate the interference of the State, precisely as I do the interference of the Church.

A grand social revolutions will occur. Tyranny of all kinds will disappear, freedom of all kinds will be revered, and none will be ashamed to confess that they believe in the Freedom of Love.

Bibliography

* "Cost the Limit of Price" (1851)
* "The Constitution of Government in the Sovereignty of the Individual" (1851)
* " [http://www.anarchism.net/scienceofsociety.htmThe Science of Society] " (1851)
* "The Sovereignty of the Individual" (1853)
* "Principles of Nature, Original Physiocracy, the New Order of Government" (1857)
* "The Pantarchy" (1871)
* "The Primary Synopsis of Universology and Alwato: The New Scientific Universal Language" (1871)
* "The Basic Outline of Universology" (1872)
* "The Labor Dollar" (1881)
* "Elements of Universology" (1881)
* "The New Civilization" (1885)

Notes