Abstract
THIS is a careful translation into German of a full and sympathetic study of Comte's positivist philosophy in all its aspects. M. Lévy-Bruhl is not one of those more cautious disciples who, like Littré, rejected Comte's religion in the name of his philosophy. He boldly defends the whole later development with its curious substitute for Catholicism as a necessary consequence of the original Comtian conception of a reform of society operating by means of a reform of philosophy. The actual subject of his book is, however, the philosophy apart from the subsequent developments. He treats with lucidity and knowledge in his first book of the foundations of the positivist doctrine, the alleged “law of the three stages,” the classification of the sciences and the concept of law. In books ii. and iii. he presents a sketch of the natural and social sciences, exhibiting their interrelation. The concluding book is devoted to an exposition of the positivist ethics. The translation reads well and pleasantly, and makes one wish that we in England, where Comte is more talked about than studied, possessed a statement of his doctrine at once so lucid and so concise.
Die Philosophie August Comte's.
By L. Lévy-Brühl. German translation by H. Molenaar. Pp. 286. (Leipzig: Dürr'schen Buchhandlung, 1902.) Price Mk. 6.
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T., A. Die Philosophie August Comte's . Nature 66, 369 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/066369b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/066369b0