THE SOUL OF MAN UNDER SOCIALISM

The Soul of Man Under Socialism is an 1891 essay by Oscar Wilde in which he expounds a libertarian socialist worldview and a critique of charity. The writing of The Soul of Man followed Wildes conversion to anarchist philosophy following his reading of the works of Peter Kropotkin.In The Soul of Man Wilde argues that under capitalism the majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism are forced indeed so to spoil them: instead of realising their true talents they waste their time solving the social problems caused by capitalism without taking their common cause away. Thus caring! people seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see in poverty but their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolongit because as Wilde putsit the proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible.