ABSTRACT

Although Auguste Comte is conventionally acknowledged as one of the founders of sociology and as a key representative of positivism, few new editions of his writings have been published in the English language in this century. He has become virtually dissociated from the history of modern positivism and the most recent debates about it. Gertrud Lenzer maintains that the work of Comte is, for better or for worse, essential to an understanding of the modern period of positivism. This collection provides new access to the work of Comte and gives practitioners of various disciplines the possibility of reassessing concepts that were first introduced in Comte's writings.

Today much of the ordinary business of academic disciplines is conducted under the assumption that the realm of science is essentially separate from the realms of politics and science. A close reading of Comte will reveal how deeply such current ideas and theories were originally embedded in a particular political context. One of his central methodological principles was that the theory of society had to be removed from the arena of political practice precisely in order to control that practice by means of these same sciences. It is in Comte's work that the reader will be able to observe how the forces of social and political reaction began to be powerfully organized to combat the critical forces in its own and later eras. Auguste Comte and Positivism will be of importance to the work of philosophers, sociologists, political theorists, and historians.

part I|68 pages

Early Writings (1819-1828)

chapter |3 pages

Preface to the Early Writings (1854)

chapter |3 pages

Separation of Opinions from Aspirations

(First Essay, 1819)

chapter |62 pages

Plan of the Scientific Operations Necessary for Reorganizing Society

(Third Essay, 1822)

part 2|238 pages

The First System

part Book I|28 pages

Mathematics

chapter 1|11 pages

Mathematics, Abstract and Concrete

chapter 2|3 pages

General View of Mathematical Analysis

chapter 3|2 pages

General View of Geometry

chapter 4|12 pages

Rational Mechanics

part Book II|8 pages

Astronomy

chapter 1|7 pages

General View of Astronomy

chapter 6|1 pages

Sidereal Astronomy and Cosmogony

part Book III|14 pages

Physics

chapter 1|14 pages

General View of Physics

part Book IV|11 pages

Chemistry

chapter 1|11 pages

General View of Chemistry

part Book V|32 pages

Biology

chapter 1|19 pages

General View of Biology

part 3|152 pages

The Second System

chapter |8 pages

Preface

part Volume I|3 pages

A General View of Positivism

chapter 1|17 pages

The Intellectual Character of Positivism

chapter 4|9 pages

The Influence of Positivism upon Women

chapter 6|9 pages

Conclusion: The Religion of Humanity