Comte

Auguste Comte (1798-1857), an inspired philosopher and founder of a religious philosophy, is not studied widely today and his doctrine positivism is readily discredited. However his work, which reflects considerably contemporary sociopolitical ambitions, is well worth revisiting. What Auguste Comte wished to accomplish, in response to the movement already unleashed by the industrial revolution and the standardization of scientific concepts, was to accelerate social unification on a world-wide scale by revealing the intellectual and political " system " of this new historical social order. He invented " sociology " as a means to theorize and achieve a type of social order that would be neither individualist nor tyrannical. He then founded a " positive religion " a sort of socio-anthropology that expressed the components of human activity (masculine/feminine, heart/reason, etc.) within a reciprocal stimulation system to guide knowledge, desire and work in the direction of a " Goddess of Humanity. " In this book, the author strives to reinstate the profound originality of Comte's positivism, without minimizing some of its more troublesome aspects, in the hope of inspiring us to read an author whose influence can still be felt in scientific, religious and " ideological " spheres.Laurent Fedi, a former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, is the published author of Le Problème de la connaissance dans la philosophie de Charles Renouvier, and co-editor of Les philosophies françaises et la science : dialogue avec Kant.