Leroux Pierre (1797–1871), French philosopher reputed to have introduced the word socialisme in France (c.1834). He claimed to be the first to use solidarité as a sociological concept (in his memoirs, La Grève de Samarez [The Beach at Samarez], 1863). The son of a Parisian café owner, Leroux centered his life work on journalism, both as a printer (patenting an advanced procedure for typesetting) and as founder of a number of significant serial publications. The Encyclopédie Nouvelle (New Encyclopedia, 1833–48, incomplete), which he launched with Jean Reynaud (1806–63), was conceived and written in the spirit of Diderot’s magnum opus. It aspired to be the platform for republican and democratic thought during the July Monarchy (1830–48). The reformer’s influence on contemporaries such as Hugo, Belinsky, J. Michelet, and Heine was considerable. Leroux fervently believed in Progress, unlimited and divinely inspired. This doctrine he took to be eighteenth-century France’s particular contribution to the Enlightenment. Progress must make its way between twin perils: the ‘follies of illuminism’ or ‘foolish spiritualism’ and the ‘abject orgies of materialism.’ Accordingly, Leroux blamed Condillac for having ‘drawn up the code of materialism’ by excluding an innate Subject from his sensationalism (‘Condillac,’ Encyclopédie Nouvelle). Cousin’s eclecticism, state doctrine under the July Monarchy and synonym for immobility (‘Philosophy requires no further development; it is complete as is,’ Leroux wrote sarcastically in 1838, echoing Cousin), was a constant target of his polemics. Having abandoned traditional Christian beliefs, Leroux viewed immortality as an infinite succession of rebirths on earth, our sense of personal identity being preserved throughout by Platonic ‘reminiscences’ (De l’Humanité [Concerning Humanity], 1840). See also CONDILLAC , COUSIN, ENLIGHTEN – MENT. D.A.G.