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{{other people|William Thompson}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2013}}
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'''William Thompson''' (1775 – 28 March 1833) was an Irish political and [[Philosopher|philosophical]] writer and [[Reform movement|social reformer]], developing from [[utilitarianism]] into an early critic of capitalist exploitation whose ideas influenced the [[cooperative]], [[trade union]] and [[Chartism|Chartist]] movements as well as [[Karl Marx]].
Born into the [[Anglo-Irish]] [[Protestant Ascendancy|Ascendancy]] of wealthy landowners and merchants of [[Cork (city)|Cork]] society, his attempt to will his estate to the [[Agricultural cooperative|cooperative movement]] after his death sparked a long court case as his family fought successfully to have the will annulled.<ref>Fintan Lane, "William Thompson, bankruptcy and the west Cork estate, 1808-1834", in ''Irish Historical Studies'', vol. xxxix, no. 153 (May 2014), pp 24–39.</ref> According to E. T. Craig, this decision to will his estate to the cooperative movement was taken after a visit to the pioneering [[Ralahine]] Commune.
Marxist [[James Connolly]] described him as the "first Irish socialist" and a forerunner to Marx, who cited Thompson in his works as well as being an influence upon Marx's thought.
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=== Vegetarianism ===
Thompson became a non-smoker, [[Teetotalism|teetotaller]] and [[Vegetarianism|vegetarian]] for the last 17 years of his life.<ref name="Pankhurst 1954">Pankhurst, Richard. (1954). ''William Thompson (1775-1833): Britain's Pioneer Socialist, Feminist, and Co-operator''. Watts. p. 8</ref><ref>Feehan, John. (2003). ''Farming in Ireland: History, Heritage and Environment''. University College Dublin. p. 105</ref> These abstemious habits, he explained, helped him to concentrate on his reading and writing.<ref name="Pankhurst 1954"/>
Thompson ate bread and jam for breakfast and he would lunch on potatoes and turnips.<ref name="Pankhurst 1954"/> He did not eat butter or eggs but was fond of [[honey]]. Honey was produced in large quantities on his farm and Thompson supplied his workers with his favourite beverage, honey tea.<ref name="Pankhurst 1954"/>
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=== Influence on Karl Marx and Marxists ===
[[Thorstein Veblen]] has said Marx had a "large...unacknowledged debt" to Thompson.<ref>https://www.marxists.org/subject/economy/authors/veblen/soc-econ.htm</ref> [[Harold Laski]] remarks that Thompson "laid the foundations" for Marxism.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nFilAwAAQBAJ&q=harold+laski+william+thompson&pg=PA219 |title = Happiness, Democracy, and the Cooperative Movement: The Radical Utilitarianism of William Thompson|isbn = 9781438452050|last1 = Kaswan|first1 = Mark J.|date = 21 May 2014}}</ref> [[James Connolly]] held Thompson in high regard saying he was an "original thinker, a pioneer of Socialist thought, superior to any of the Utopian Socialists of the Continent" who had "a merciless fidelity to truth"<ref name="marxists.org">https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1910/lih/chap10.htm</ref> [[Herbert Foxwell]] believed Thompson to be "the first writer to elevate the question of the just distribution of wealth to the supreme position it has since held in English political economy. Up to his time political economy had been rather commercial than industrial".<ref
[[Karl Marx]] had come across Thompson's work on a visit to Manchester in 1845, and cites it in passing in ''The Poverty of Philosophy'' (1847), and also in ''Capital'' itself.{{sfn|Marx|pp. 397–399}} Thompson's "An Inquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth Most Conducive to Human Happiness; applied to the Newly Proposed System of Voluntary Equality of Wealth" is acknowledged by Marx as one of the works on political economy he studied.<ref>https://www.ria.ie/news/dictionary-irish-biography/karl-marx-and-dib</ref>
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[[Category:1775 births]]
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