Auguste Comte and Positivism : The Essential Writings

ISBN 10: 0765804123 / ISBN 13: 9780765804129

Published by Taylor & Francis Group, 1997

About this Item

Former library copy. Pages intact with possible writing/highlighting. Binding strong with minor wear. Dust jackets/supplements may not be included. Includes library markings. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good.

Seller Inventory # 861455-6

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Auguste Comte and Positivism : The Essential Writings
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0765804123
• ISBN 13: 9780765804129
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: New Ed.
• Condition: Very Good
• Weight: 1.704 pounds

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Gertrud Lenzer