Auguste Comte: Volume 1
An Intellectual Biography

The first volume of a two-volume intellectual biography of Auguste Comte, the founder of modern sociology and positivism.

Mary Pickering (Author)

9780521434058, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 November 1993

792 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 4.1 cm, 1.28 kg

'A notable feature of this magnificent book is the illuminating way in which Mary Pickering relates the life-struggles of Comte with the development of his ideas.' I. Bernard Cohen, Harvard University

This book constitutes the first volume of a two-volume intellectual biography of Auguste Comte, the founder of modern sociology and a philosophical movement called positivism. Volume One offers a reinterpretation of Comte's 'first career' (1798–1842), when he completed the scientific foundation of his philosophy. It describes the interplay between Comte's ideas and the historical context of post-revolutionary France, his struggles with poverty and mental illness, and his volatile relationships with friends, family and colleagues, including such famous contemporaries as Saint-Simon, the Saint-Simonians, Guizot and John Stuart Mill. Pickering shows that the man who called for a new social philosophy based on the sciences was not only ill at ease in the most basic human relationships, but also profoundly questioned the ability of the purely scientific spirit to regenerate the political and social world.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The early years
2. The life and works of Saint-Simon up to 1817
3. Comte's first works for Saint-Simon
4. Comte's growing independence, 1819–21
5. The fundamental opuscule and Comte's rupture with Saint-Simon
6. The aftermath of the rupture
the search for connections
7. Comte's efforts to establish himself
8. Intellectual and mental crises
9. The road to recovery, 1828–30
10. Years of success and confrontation, 1830–8
11. Comte's changing psyche and aberrant behavior, 1838–40
12. The encounter between two luminaries: Comte and Mill
13. 1842: a turning point
14. Cours de philosophie positive: positivism and the natural sciences
15. Cours de philosophie positive
sociology
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]