Auguste Comte: Volume 1: An Intellectual Biography

by Mary Pickering

Overview

This book constitutes the first volume of a projected two-volume intellectual biography of Auguste Comte, the founder of modern sociology and a philosophical movement called positivism. Volume One offers a reinterpretation of Comte's "first career," (1798-1842) when he completed the scientific foundation of his philosophy. It describes the interplay between Comte's ideas and the historical context of postrevolutionary France, his struggles with poverty and mental illness, and his volatile relationships with friends, family, and colleagues, including such famous contemporaries as Saint-Simon, the Saint-Simonians, Guizot, and John Stuart Mill. Pickering shows that the man who called for a new social philosophy based on the sciences was not only ill at ease in the most basic human relationships, but also profoundly questioned the ability of the purely scientific spirit to regenerate the political and social world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521025744
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/20/2006
Series:	Auguste Comte Intellectual Biography
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	792
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.21(h) x 5.43(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. The early years; 2. The life and works of Saint-Simon up to 1817; 3. Comte's first works for Saint-Simon; 4. Comte's growing independence, 1819–21; 5. The fundamental opuscule and Comte's rupture with Saint-Simon; 6. The aftermath of the rupture; the search for connections; 7. Comte's efforts to establish himself; 8. Intellectual and mental crises; 9. The road to recovery, 1828–30; 10. Years of success and confrontation, 1830–8; 11. Comte's changing psyche and aberrant behavior, 1838–40; 12. The encounter between two luminaries: Comte and Mill; 13. 1842: a turning point; 14. Cours de philosophie positive: positivism and the natural sciences; 15. Cours de philosophie positive; sociology; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...the book represents a major contribution not only to our understanding of the enigmatic Comte but also to our larger picture of nineteenth-century European thought....a superb book—enhaustively researched and written with admirable clarity." Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences

"...Mary Pickering provides a superb account of Auguste Comte....The book is richly documented and exceptionally well written. It represents the first truly comprehensive intellectual biography of Comte." Canadian Journal of Sociology

"Pickering's treatment of Comte's prickly relations with the power brokers of the French scientific and academic world is detailed and cogent. She acheives a balance between sympathy for Comte, whose quest for official recognition was doomed by his arrogance and social ineptitude, and for those who were unswayed by his claims to intellectual superiority." ISIS

"...should become the standard work in the field for the forseeable future...a biography both complete and eminently readable." Library Journal

"...an all inclusive, encyclopedic study in the context of romanticism, social, utopian and other movements...Pickering's documentation if remarkable...Here is a work of thoroughness, a study of extraordinary importance and a valuable commentary. This study is an essential reference that will long be treasured. We are impatiently waiting for the second volume!" Nineteenth-Century French Studies

"Although Auguste Comte was one of the primary intellectual figures of the nineteenth century, founder of the school of thought known as positivism, there is no comprehensive work on his life, thought, and influence. We are, accordingly, all the more grateful to Mary Pickering for having produced a readable and authoritative study of Comte's life and his philosophical and social ideas, set against the background of early 19th-century French history. A notable feature of her magnificent book is the illuminating way in which Mary Pickering relates the life-struggles of Comte with the development of his ideas." I. Bernard Cohen, Harvard University

"...extremely detailed....Not since the labours of Harriet Martineau—the original translator of Comte's Positive Philosophy, 150 years ago—has Comte received such devoted attention." Anthony Giddens, Times Literary Supplement

"...an exhaustive account of Comte's life and work and is fully documented... For those with qa special interest in the history of ideas, this is an important book... the standard work on Comte's early life." Nature

"In this admirably thorough first volume of Pickering's biography of Auguste Comte, she has succeeded in returning Comte to his rightful principal place in the history of sociology....Pickering provides not only an excellent biography, but also a balanced and readable cultural history of the era." Choice

"...a large and impressive work. ...a work that elucidates many areas of nineteenth-century intellectual history. This is a solid and impressive work of scholarship...." Harvey Chisick, International Studies in Philosophy

From the Publisher

Generally considered to be the founder of sociology and of the philosophical movement known as positivism, Comte is well served by this first volume of a projected two-part biography. Judging by Volume 1, it should become the standard work in the field for the foreseeable future. Pickering (social sciences, Pace Univ.) begins in 1798, the year of Comte's birth, and closes in 1842, when the sixth and final volume of Course of Positive Philosophy was published. With considerable skill and a thorough knowledge of the sources, she documents Comte's early life and difficulties and places his ideas within the context of the intellectual history of post-Revolutionary France and of the work of such contemporaries as John Stuart Mill and Saint-Simon. The result of this painstaking research is a biography both complete and eminently readable. Recommended for all academic libraries.-- Terry Skeats, Bishop's Univ. Lib., Lennoxville, Quebec

Library Journal