Auguste Comte

by Gane; Mike

• ISBN13: 9780415385428
• ISBN10: 0415385423
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2006-08-17
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Auguste Comte is widely acknowledged as the founder of the science of sociology and the 'Religion of Humanity'. In this fascinating study, the first major reassessment of Comte's sociology for many years, Mike Gane draws on recent scholarship and presents a new reading of this remarkable figure. Comte's contributions to the history and philosophy of science have decisively influenced positive methodologies. He coined the term sociology and gave it its first content, and he is renowned for having introduced the sociology of gender and emotion into sociology. What is less well known however, is that Comte contributed to ethics, and indeed coined the word altruism. In this important work Gane examines Comte's sociological vision and shows that because he thought sociology could and should be reflexive, encyclopaedic and utopian, he considered topics such as fetishism, polytheism, fate, love, and the relations between sociology, science, theology and culture. This fascinating account of thebirth of sociology fills what till now has been a considerable gap in the market for an introductory text on Comte. Gane's work is an essential read for all sociologists and students of the discipline.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
Abbreviations	xiv
Chapter 1 An Introduction to Comte's Ideas	1	(12)
Chapter 2 The Comtean Illusion	13	(11)
Chapter 3 The Context and Materials of Sociology	24	(13)
Chapter 4 The Intimations of Social Science and a New Politics	37	(13)
Chapter 5 Comte's Heretical Report on Knowledge	50	(15)
Chapter 6 But Why Did Comte Need Sociology?	65	(11)
Chapter 7 A Sociological Theory of Modernity	76	(10)
Chapter 8 Spiritual Power, Sociology and Humanity	86	(16)
Chapter 9 A Second Sociology	102	(15)
Chapter 10 Sociologists and the Regime of Fetishes	117	(11)
Chapter 11 Comte's Futures	128	(7)
Glossary	135	(2)
Notes	137	(6)
Bibliography	143	(11)
Index	154