His greatest success was in the support of the young, to which he devoted special attention. He was the founder of infant childcare in Great Britain, especially in Scotland. Though his reform ideas resemble European reform ideas of the time, he was likely not influenced by the overseas views; his ideas of the ideal education were his own.
He was at first regarded with suspicion as a stranger but he soon won the confidence of his people. The mills continued to have great commercial success, but some of Owens schemes involved considerable expense, which displeased his partners. Tired of the restrictions imposed on him by men who wished to conduct the business on the ordinary principles, in 1813 Owen arranged to have them bought out by new found investors. These, including Jeremy Bentham and a well-known Quaker, William Allen, were content to accept just 5000 return on their capital, allowing Owen a freer scope for his philanthropy. In the same year, Owen first authored several essays in which he expounded on the principles which underlay his education philosophy.
Owen had originally been a follower of the classical liberal and utilitarian Jeremy Bentham. However, as time passed Owen became more and more socialist, whereas Bentham thought that free markets would free the workers from the excess power of the capitalists.
At an early age he had lost all belief in the prevailing forms of religion and had thought out a creed for himself, which he considered an entirely new and original discovery. The chief points in this philosophy were that mans character is made not by him but for him, that it has been formed by circumstances over which he had no control, that he is not a proper subject either of praise or blame. These principles lead up to the practical conclusion that the great secret in the right formation of mans character is to place him under the proper influencesphysical, moral and socialfrom his earliest years. The principles of the irresponsibility of man and of the effect of early influences form the key to Owens whole system of education and social amelioration. They are embodied in his first work, A New View of Society, or Essays on the Principle of the Formation of the Human Character, the first of four essays appearing in 1813. Owens new views theoretically belong to a very old system of philosophy, and his originality is to be found only in his benevolent application of them.
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