If you're looking for the earliest echoes of proto-socialist thinking, you'd have to go back at least to Jesus, and probably all the way back to the earliest recognizable human civilizations. There's a great quote from some anthropologist about how the first real sign of civilization wasn't pottery or buildings, but evidence that someone born with significant medical issues was supported by the people around them and wound up living to old age. There's a lot of "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need" in ancient history.
But it's still useful to view capital-S "Socialism" as a product of the 19th century and defined by Marx and those who built on his writings. It encompasses so much more, and with so much more specificity, than earlier impulses towards egalitarianism or ensuring that everyone was provided for.
There's also a lot of quite socialist stuff in the old testament as well.
I'm not sure about Marx inventing Socialism I think he more refined Socialist economic understanding. After all way back to the socialist urges during early agriculture the general principal of "I should be paid according to the value of work i'm doing" and "we should hold things in common" can be found.
Marx certainly didn't invent socialism or 19th century socialism or even communism; he was a critical scientific examiner of capitalism and a communist, who was able to criticize other socialist positions for being weak and insufficient in actually changing capitalism, and then went beyond others before in specifics critiquing political economy.
If you're looking for the earliest echoes of proto-socialist thinking, you'd have to go back at least to Jesus, and probably all the way back to the earliest recognizable human civilizations. There's a great quote from some anthropologist about how the first real sign of civilization wasn't pottery or buildings, but evidence that someone born with significant medical issues was supported by the people around them and wound up living to old age. There's a lot of "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need" in ancient history.
But it's still useful to view capital-S "Socialism" as a product of the 19th century and defined by Marx and those who built on his writings. It encompasses so much more, and with so much more specificity, than earlier impulses towards egalitarianism or ensuring that everyone was provided for.
There's also a lot of quite socialist stuff in the old testament as well.
I'm not sure about Marx inventing Socialism I think he more refined Socialist economic understanding. After all way back to the socialist urges during early agriculture the general principal of "I should be paid according to the value of work i'm doing" and "we should hold things in common" can be found.
Marx certainly didn't invent socialism or 19th century socialism or even communism; he was a critical scientific examiner of capitalism and a communist, who was able to criticize other socialist positions for being weak and insufficient in actually changing capitalism, and then went beyond others before in specifics critiquing political economy.