Auguste Comte: Volume 3
An Intellectual Biography

This volume explores the life and works of Auguste Comte from 1852 to 1857 and the impact of his positivist philosophy and Religion of Humanity.

Mary Pickering (Author)

9780521119146, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 September 2009

682 pages
23.6 x 16.4 x 3.5 cm, 1.05 kg

'Mary Pickering has spent thirty years of her life working on her biography of Auguste Comte, and the resulting two thousand or so pages are evidence of the amount of research and documentation involved.' Keith Gore, Nineteenth-Century French Studies

This volume continues to explore the life and works of Auguste Comte during his so-called second career. It covers the period from the coup d'état of Louis Napoleon in late 1851 to Comte's death in 1857. During these early years of the Second Empire, Comte became increasingly conservative and anxious to control his disciples. This study offers the first study of the tensions within his movement. Focusing on his second masterpiece, the Système de politique positive, and other important books, such as the Synthèse subjective, Mary Pickering not only sheds light on Comte's intellectual development but also traces the dissemination of positivism and the Religion of Humanity throughout many parts of the world.

Introduction
1. The coup d'état and its consequences
2. Comte's stumblings
3. The vicissitudes of Positivism during the early empire
4. Système de politique positive: natural and social philosophy
5. Système de politique positive: Comte's philosophy of history
6. Système de politique positive: Comte's utopia
7. The last years: politics and propaganda
8. The last flurry of activity: the Testament and Synthèse subjective
9. The death of the great priest of humanity and his influence
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Sociology [JHB], History of ideas [JFCX], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], European history [HBJD]