CONSIDERANT, VICTOR PROSPER French socialist, was born at Salins (Jura) on Oct. 12, 18o8. Educated at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, he entered the French army as an engineer, rising to the rank of captain. He resigned his commission in 1831, in order to devote himself to advancing the doctrines of Francois Fourier. On the death of Fourier in 1837 he became the acknowledged head of the move ment, and took charge of La Phalange, the organ of Fourierism. He also established phalanges at Conde-sur-Vesgres and elswhere. During this period he published his Destinee sociale undoubtedly the most able and most important work of the Fourierist school. After the revolution of 1848 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly for the department of Loiret, and in 1849 to the Legislative Assembly for the department of the Seine. Considerant's share in the "demonstration" under the leadership of Ledru-Rollin on June 13, 1849, made it necessary for him to leave France. He made Brussels his headquarters and from there made his visits to America. On the second of these visits he founded at San Antonio, Texas, the short-lived communistic colony of La Reunion. He returned to Paris in 1869, and died there on Dec. 27, 1893. The most important of Considerant's other writings were Exposition du systeme de Fourier Principes du socialisme (1847), Theorie du droit de propriete et du droit an travail (1848).
See Mme. Coignet, Victor Considerant, sa vie, son oeuvre ; P. Collard, Victor Considerant, sa vie, ses idees (Dijon, 191o).