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Auguste Comte's doctrine of positivism was both a philosophy of
science and a political philosophy designed to organize a new,
secular, stable society based on positive, or scientific, ideas,
rather than the theological dogmas and metaphysical speculations
associated with the ancien regime. This volume offers the most
comprehensive English-language overview of Auguste Comte's
philosophy, the relation of his work to the sciences of his day,
and the extensive, continuing impact of his thinking on philosophy
and especially secular political movements in Europe, Latin
America, and Asia. Contributors consider Comte's reasons for
establishing a Religion of Humanity, as well as his views on
domestic life and the arts in his positivist utopia. The volume
further details Comte's attempt to apply his "positive method,"
first to social science and then to politics and morality, thereby
defending the continuity of his career while also critically
examining the limits of his approach.
This book offers a reassessment of the work of Emile Durkheim in
the context of a French philosophical tradition that had seriously
misinterpreted Kant by interpreting his theory of the categories as
psychological faculties. Durkheim's sociological theory of the
categories, as revealed by Warren Schmaus, is an attempt to provide
an alternative way of understanding Kant. For Durkheim the
categories are necessary conditions for human society. The concepts
of causality, space and time underpin the moral rules and
obligations that make society possible. A particularly interesting
feature of this book is its transcendence of the distinction
between intellectual and social history by placing Durkheim's work
in the context of the French educational establishment of the Third
Republic. It does this by subjecting student notes and philosophy
textbooks to the same sort of critical analysis typically applied
only to the classics of philosophy.
This book offers a major reassessment of the work of Emile Durkheim
in the context of a French philosophical tradition that had
seriously misinterpreted Kant by interpreting his theory of the
categories as psychological faculties. Durkheim's sociological
theory of the categories, as revealed by Warren Schmaus, is an
attempt to provide an alternative way of understanding Kant. For
Durkheim the categories are necessary conditions for human society.
The concepts of causality, space and time underpin the moral rules
and obligations that make society possible. A particularly original
feature of this book is its transcendence of the distinction
between intellectual and social history by placing Durkheim's work
in the context of the French educational establishment of the Third
Republic. It does this by subjecting student notes and philosophy
textbooks to the same sort of critical analysis typically applied
only to the classics of philosophy.
French philosopher Charles Renouvier played an influential role in
reviving philosophy in France after it was proscribed during the
Second Empire. Drawn to the ideals of the French Revolution,
Renouvier came to recognize that the free will and civil liberties
he supported were essential to the pursuit of science, contrary to
the ideologies of positivists and socialists who would restrict
liberty in the name of science. He struggled against monarchy and
religious authority in the period up through 1848 and defended a
liberal, secular form of political organization at a critical
turning point in French history, the beginning of the Third
Republic. As Warren Schmaus argues, Renouvier's work provides an
example of one way in which philosophy of science can succeed in
bringing about change in political life-by critiquing political
ideologies that falsely claim absolute certainty on religious,
scientific, or any other grounds. Liberty and the Pursuit of
Knowledge explores the understudied relationship between
Renouvier's philosophy of science and his political philosophy,
shedding new light on the significance of his thought for the
history of philosophy.
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