Auguste Comte and the Religion of Humanity
The Post-theistic Program of French Social Theory

This 2001 book is a critique of Comte's concept of religion and its place in his thinking on politics, sociology and philosophy of science.

Andrew Wernick (Author)

9780521662727, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 April 2001

290 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.56 kg

'Mr Wernick's book on August Comte is brilliant. ... (He) succeeds admirably in placing Comte's religion in the context of his time and in the history of social theory in France. … This book will give any reader pause to reflect on the distinctiveness of French social theory, the problem of defining a community, and the relationship between politics and religion in both its theistic and post-theistic forms.' Mary Pickering, San Jose State University, California

This 2001 book offers an exciting reinterpretation of Auguste Comte, the founder of French sociology. Following the development of his philosophy of positivism, Comte later focused on the importance of the emotions in his philosophy resulting in the creation of a new religious system, the Religion of Humanity. Andrew Wernick provides the first in-depth critique of Comte's concept of religion and its place in his thinking on politics, sociology and philosophy of science. He places Comte's ideas in the context of post-1789 French political and intellectual history, and of modern philosophy, especially postmodernism. Wernick relates Comte to Marx and Nietzsche as seminal figures of modernity and examines key features of modern and postmodern French social theory, tracing the inherent flaws and disintegration of Comte's system. Wernick offers original and fascinating insights in this rich study which will attract a wide audience from sociologists and philosophers to cultural theorists and historians.

Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: rethinking Comte
2. The system and its logic (1): from positive philosophy to social science
3. The system and its logic (2): from sociology to the subjective synthesis
4. Religion and the crisis of industrialism
5. Love and the social body
6. The path to perfection
7. Humanity as 'le vrai grand-être'
8. Socio-theology after Comte
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Social theory [JHBA]