Morelly, ?-?

Not to be confused with Abbe Morellet, Morelly was a mysterious Enlightenment-era French writer about which very little is known. In his famous utopian poem the Basiliad, Morelly outlined the rudiments of his communistic vision of society, which he followed upon by a more elaborate defense in his Code de la nature.  Morelly identified the "desire of ownership" (i.e. private property) as the source of all evil and crime. Argued that in a communistic society, with centrally-regulated distribution of goods -- every man contributing according to his ability and receiving according to his need.--  evil as such would be eradicated and natural man would emerge. 

Morelly's work echoes the contemporary contributions of Rousseau, who's most famous work was published around the same time.  But Morelly is far more radical. Morelly is suspected by some to be an alternative ego and pen-name of Diderot himself.    He has been variously identified as a régent in Vitry-le-François, and referred to (possibly erroneously) as Etienne-Gabriel Morelly, son of a civil servant of that same town, who's father may have been responsible for the first few works attributed to him.  Paulette Taieb reviews the disputes over Morelly's identity.

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