A General View of Positivism

Auguste Comte

• Publisher: Passerino
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN:
  9791222453613
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Epistemology in Philosophy

A General View of Positivism ( Discours sur l'ensemble du positivisme ) is a 1844 book by the French philosopher Auguste Comte, first published in English in 1865. A founding text in the development of positivism and the discipline of sociology, the work provides a revised and full account of the theory Comte presented earlier in his multi-part The Course in Positive Philosophy (1830–1842). Comte outlines the epistemological view of positivism, provides an account of the manner by which sociology should be performed, and describes his law of three stages. Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte (19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher, mathematician and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term. Comte's ideas were also fundamental to the development of sociology; indeed, he invented the term and treated that discipline as the crowning achievement of the sciences. Translated by J. H. Bridges.

Table of contents

• Cover
• A General View of Positivism
• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Introductory Remarks
• Chapter 1. The Intellectual Character Of Positivism
• Chapter 2. The Social Aspect Of Positivism, As Shown By Its Connexion With The General Revolutionary Movement Of Western Europe
• Chapter 3. The Action Of Positivism Upon The Working Classes
• Chapter 4. The Influence Of Positivism Upon Women
• Chapter 5. The Relation Of Positivism To Art
• Chapter 6. Conclusion.