Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography

by Mary Pickering

• ISBN13: 9780521513258
• ISBN10: 0521513251
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-09-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This volume explores the life and works of Auguste Comte during the last and most controversial part of his career, the period from 1842 to 1857. Focusing on his Syst+me de politique positive and other key books, Mary Pickering connects his intellectual development to the tumultuous historical context and to episodes in his personal life, including his famous relationship with Clotilde de Vaux. The book also examines for the first time why workers, doctors, women like Harriet Martineau, and famous thinkers, such as John Stuart Mill and Emile Littr_, were drawn to his thought. Furthermore, the book sheds light on why positivism and the Religion of Humanity had such an enormous impact on such countries as Brazil and the United States.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Abbreviations and Notes	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
1843-1844: The Battle against the Pedantocracy	p. 15
Tensions in Comte's Relationships, 1842-1846	p. 70
Clotilde de Vaux and the Initial Encounter with Comte	p. 133
The Muse's Tragic End	p. 183
Pain and Recognition	p. 230
The Revolution of1848	p. 266
Discours sur l'ensemble du positivisme	p. 335
Personal and Professional Disappointments	p. 414
The Early Development of the Religion of Humanity	p. 453
The Development of the Positivist Movement	p. 516
Conclusion	p. 581
Bibliograpy	p. 587
Index	p. 615
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