Publisher's Synopsis
-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.[1] The writing of -The Soul of Man- followed Wilde's conversion to anarchist philosophy, following his reading of the works of Peter Kropotkin.[2] 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 prolong it- because, as Wilde puts it, -the proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible.-