The positive philosophy of Auguste Comte;
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~200,000 words · 938 passages
Cite this work
- APAAuguste Comte. (n.d.). The positive philosophy of Auguste Comte;. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/auguste-comte/the-positive-philosophy-of-auguste-comte
- MLAAuguste Comte. The positive philosophy of Auguste Comte;. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/auguste-comte/the-positive-philosophy-of-auguste-comte.
- ChicagoAuguste Comte. The positive philosophy of Auguste Comte;. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/auguste-comte/the-positive-philosophy-of-auguste-comte.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Comte's positive philosophy in English, in Harriet Martineau's condensed version.
Context and history
It matters to know what one is reading: Martineau did not translate the whole Cours but cut it from six volumes to two, trimming repetitions and reordering the argument. So this is not the original. That said, Comte read it and liked it well enough to have it translated back into French for his students, which gives a condensation unusual authority. For any question about the text, though, the original French Cours is in the catalogue too.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
destined wholly for our use, and involved in every way with our existence. The theological philosophy^ presenting this view, administered exactly the stimulus necessary to incite the human mind to the irksome labour without which it could make no progress. We can now scarcely conceive of such a state of things, our reason having become sufficiently mature to enter upon laborious scientific researches, without needing any such stimulus as wrought upon the imagina-METAPHYSICAL AND POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY. 5 tions of astrologers and alchemists. We have motive enough in the hope of discovering the laws of phenomena, with a view to the confii-mation or rejection of a theory. But it could not be so in the earliest days ; and it is to the chimeras of astrology and alchemy that we owe the long series of observations and experiments on which our positive science is based. Kepler felt this on behalf of astronomy, and Berthollet on behalf of chemistry. Thus was a spontaneous philosophy, the theological, the only possible beginning, method, and provisional system, out of which the Positive philosophy could grow. It is easy, after this, to perceive how Metaphysical methods and doctrines must have afforded the means of transition from the one to the other.