Comte after Positivism

Description

This book provides a detailed, systematic reconsideration of the neglected nineteenth-century positivist Auguste Comte. Apart from offering an accurate account of what Comte actually wrote, the book argues that Comte's positivism has never had greater contemporary relevance than now. The aim of the first part of the book is to rescue Comte from the influential misinterpretation of his work by John Stuart Mill. The second part argues that this deep historically-minded concern with the tradition of philosophy for current philosophical practice places Comte in the same camp as such well-known post-positivists as Richard Rorty, Charles Taylor, and Hilary Putnam. Professor Scharff concludes that, even though he was the first positivist, Comte is also the only positivist who retains his relevance today.

"This is the first volume to give an accurate account of his [Comte] principle teachings as well as a reassessment of his philosophical position in the light of post-positivistic intellectual trends...Recommended." The Reader's Review "Scharff's Comte After Positivism is a brilliant work of anamnesis; not a reproduction or a re-presentation of things past, nor an image of lost object, but rather a presentation of current philosophical amnesiacs acting out--but not always working through--scenes of their historical past...offers timely and insightful suggestions for a viable postanalytic philosophy." The European Legacy "Comte After Positivism provides telling intellectual history, incisive diagnosis of our present philosophical impasse, and a coherent vision of what postpositivist philosophy could become." Laurence D. Smith, The Journal of Mind and Behaviour