Although Auguste Comte is conventionally acknowledged as one of the founders of sociology and as a key representative of positivism, few new editions of his writings have been published in the English language in this century. He has become virtually dissociated from the history of modern positivism and the most recent debates about it. Gertrud Lenzer maintains that the work of Comte is, for better or for worse, essential to an understanding of the modern period of positivism. This collection provides (...) new access to the work of Comte and gives practitioners of various disciplines the possibility of reassessing concepts that were first introduced in Comte's writings. Today much of the ordinary business of academic disciplines is conducted under the assumption that the realm of science is essentially separate from the realms of politics and science. A close reading of Comte will reveal how deeply such current ideas and theories were originally embedded in a particular political context. One of his central methodological principles was that the theory of society had to be removed from the arena of political practice precisely in order to control that practice by means of these same sciences. It is in Comte's work that the reader will be able to observe how the forces of social and political reaction began to be powerfully organized to combat the critical forces in its own and later eras. Auguste Comte and Positivism will be of importance to the work of philosophers, sociologists, political theorists, and historians. (shrink)

This paper sets out to evaluate the claim that Aristotle’s Assertoric Syllogistic is a relevance logic or shows significant similarities with it. I prepare the grounds for a meaningful comparison by extracting the notion of relevance employed in the most influential work on modern relevance logic, Anderson and Belnap’s Entailment. This notion is characterized by two conditions imposed on the concept of validity: first, that some meaning content is shared between the premises and the conclusion, and second, that the premises (...) of a proof are actually used to derive the conclusion. Turning to Aristotle’s Prior Analytics, I argue that there is evidence that Aristotle’s Assertoric Syllogistic satisfies both conditions. Moreover, Aristotle at one point explicitly addresses the potential harmfulness of syllogisms with unused premises. Here, I argue that Aristotle’s analysis allows for a rejection of such syllogisms on formal grounds established in the foregoing parts of the Prior Analytics. In a final section I consider the view that Aristotle distinguished between validity on the one hand and syllogistic validity on the other. Following this line of reasoning, Aristotle’s logic might not be a relevance logic, since relevance is part of syllogistic validity and not, as modern relevance logic demands, of general validity. I argue that the reasons to reject this view are more compelling than the reasons to accept it and that we can, cautiously, uphold the result that Aristotle’s logic is a relevance logic. (shrink)

This paper concerns Aristotle's kind‐crossing prohibition. My aim is twofold. I argue that the traditional accounts of the prohibition are subject to serious internal difficulties and should be questioned. According to these accounts, Aristotle's prohibition is based on the individuation of scientific disciplines and the general kind that a discipline is about, and it says that scientific demonstrations must not cross from one discipline, and corresponding kind, to another. I propose a very different account of the prohibition. The prohibition is (...) based on Aristotle's scientific and metaphysical essentialism, according to which a scientific demonstration must take as its starting point a set of per se properties of a subject, if these make up a single, unitary definition. The subject of demonstration here is a kind, although not the general kind associated with a discipline, but rather the particular kind that the particular demonstration is about. (shrink)

Selections from the most important and representative writings of the philosopher, economist, social reformer and political activist August Cieszkowski (1814 1894).

t. 1.- Cours de philosophie positive. v. 1: Les préliminaires généraux et la philosophie mathématique.--v. 2: La philosophie astronomique et la philosophie de la physique. v. 3: La philosophie chimique et la philosophie biologique.

In Metaphysics Theta 3 Aristotle attributes to the Megarics and unknown others a notorious modal thesis: (M) something can φ only if it is φ-ing. Aristotle does not tell us what motivated (M). Almost all scholars take Aristotle’s report to indicate that the Megarics defended (M) as a highly counterintuitive doctrine in modal metaphysics. But this reading faces several problems. First: what would motivate the Megarics to hold such a counterintuitive view? The existing literature tries, in various ways, to motivate (...) (M) in a way neither trivial nor absurd. But, as we will argue, the main approaches end up attributing an unsustainable position to the Megarics. Second: most historical evidence for the Megaric lineage presents the group’s philosophical practice as dialectical or negative. So why think that the claim reported in Theta 3 presents a positive, and highly controversial, metaphysical claim? This paper addresses these problems by proposing a dialectical (or negative) reading of the Megarics in Theta 3. By ‘dialectical’ we here mean a mode of philosophizing that neither seeks to establish the truth or falsity of certain theses, nor takes a skeptical stance. There are different reasons why a philosopher might want to take up such a mode; in the case of the Megarics we argue that they might have wanted to put pressure on Aristotle’s idea of possibility and the ‘test’ for possibility that Aristotle mentions in several works. Reading, as we do, (M) as (part of) a paradox about possibility and actuality, we argue that the Megarics’ dialectical approach here aims to highlight a shortcoming of an intuitive conception of possibility, which underpins Aristotle’s idea of possibility and which features in his test for possibility. (shrink)

" Pour devenir un parfait philosophe, il me manquait surtout une passion, a la fois profonde et pure, qui me fit assez apprecier la partie affective de la nature humaine " note Auguste Comte dans ses " Prieres quotidiennes " redigees peu apres 1845, cette " annee sans pareille " au cours de laquelle il rencontre, frequente et voit disparaitre Clotilde de Vaux a laquelle il voue un amour eperdu. Cette relation aussi profonde et intense que physiquement ephemere ne bouleverse (...) pas seulement la vie privee du fondateur du positivisme. La decouverte du role preponderant de l'affectivite dans les relations humaines et sociales inflechit de maniere definitive la doctrine positiviste dont la nouvelle devise devient L'amour pour principe, l'ordre pour base et le progres pour but. L'edifice theorique qu'est le Systeme de politique positive developpe l'idee d'un " nouveau pouvoir spirituel " qui prendra la forme d'une " religion de l'Humanite " a laquelle l'ordre et le progres doivent etre subordonnes, de meme que l'esprit au cur. Ce numero explore sous differents angles les implications de cet inflechissement majeur a l'uvre dans la philosophie positive, et sa complexe actualite. (shrink)

Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Prolegomena zur Historiosophie" verfügbar.

No detailed description available for "Écrits de jeunesse 1816-1828".

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections (...) in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. (shrink)

t. 1. Les religions de l'Inde, et Bulletins des religions de l'Inde (1880-1885) -- t. 2. Bulletins des religions de l'Inde (1889-1902) -- t. 3. Comptes rendus et notices (1872-1886) -- t. 4. Comptes rendus et notices (1887-1898) -- t. 5. Comptes rendus et notices (1899-1911). Bibiliographie. Index général.

Dieser Band wirft ein neues Licht auf Byzanz - als geographischen, aber vor allem als kulturellen Knotenpunkt. Denn wie kaum eine andere Region ist Byzantium über gut ein Jahrtausend durch seine ebenso zentrale wie fragile geographische Lage, aber auch durch sein Prestige wichtig für die Begegnung von Kulturen, Personen und Institutionen rund um das Mittelmeer. Hierbei stellt sich aus byzantinischer Perspektive die "antike" und "mittelalterliche" Welt als ein in wesentlichen Zügen kontinuierlicher Kulturraum dar, der bis an die Schwelle der Neuzeit (...) reicht und sich vor allem durch seine große Rezeptivität auszeichnet. Thematisiert werden daher vor allem die Wechselseitigkeit kultureller und epistemischer Rezeptions- und Transformationsprozesse und ihre jeweiligen Wissensformen. Diese Wissensformen beziehen sich auf die Ordnungsstrukturen, die der Erkenntnis und den Wissenschaften, der Sprache und medialen Repräsentation sowie den institutionellen und soziologischen Bedingungen zugrundeliegen, sowie auf die diesen korrespondierenden Gegenstände des Wissens. In diesem Austausch begegnet Byzanz auch den transformierten Spuren, welche die griechische Kultur zuvor bei ihren eifrigen Nachahmern hinterlassen hat. (shrink)

CHAPTER I THE INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER OF POSITIVISM The object of The object of all true Philosophy is Philosophy is to frame a system which shall compre- to ...

August, John Review(s) of: Contempt of court: Unofficial voices from the dogs Australian high court case 1981, by Jean Ely, Dissenters Press, West Melbourne 2011 $29.95.

I THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY In order to explain properly the true nature and peculiar character of the positive philosophy, ...

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections (...) in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. (shrink)

"Après la proclamation de la république, en 1848, Auguste Comte (1798-1857), le fondateur du positivisme, remanie son système et fonde la religion de l'Humanité. Considérant que le moment est venu de terminer la révolution et de donner à la société son organisation définitive, il expose son programme, de 1849 à 1851, dans des leçons publiques sur l'histoire de l'Humanité destinées à rallier le peuple parisien, où il dresse le tableau de l'avenir d'après l'ensemble du passé et prépare ce qui allait (...) devenir le Système de politique positive (1851-1854). Aucune trace écrite de cet enseignement ne nous était parvenue jusqu'à la découverte récente du manuscrit de César Lefort, un document unique qui nous renseigne sur la forme et les enjeux de ce que Comte appelait lui-même ses « prédications hebdomadaires ». L'édition critique de ce cours comporte une introduction dans laquelle L. Fedi restitue le contexte et étudie les transformations doctrinales et organisationnelles du positivisme."--Back cover. (shrink)

Oswald Spengler (1880 - 1936) war ein deutscher Geschichtsphilosoph und Kulturhistoriker. Das hier vorliegende Werk August Messers über Spengler erscheint nur wenige Jahre nachdem Spengler mit seiner Zyklentheorie, die sich gegen eine lineare Geschichtsschreibung ausspricht, an die Öffentlichkeit getreten ist. Messer reflektiert diese und spürt den philosophischen Grundanschauungen Spenglers in ihrem innersten Zusammenhange nach. Auf diese Weise gelingt es Messer, ein sensibles und differenziertes Bild Oswald Spenglers und seiner Ideenwelt zu zeichnen. Sorgfältig bearbeiteter Nachdruck der Originalausgabe von 1924.

At least since Socrates, philosophy has been understood as the desire for acquiring a special kind of knowledge, namely wisdom, a kind of knowledge that human beings ordinarily do not possess. According to ancient thinkers this desire may result from a variety of causes: wonder or astonishment, the bothersome or even painful realization that one lacks wisdom, or encountering certain hard perplexities or aporiai. As a result of this basic understanding of philosophy, Greek thinkers tended to regard philosophy as an (...) activity of inquiry (zētēsis) rather than as a specific discipline. Discussions concerning the right manner of engaging in philosophical inquiry – what methodoi or routes of inquiry were best suited to lead one to wisdom – became an integral part of ancient philosophy, as did the question how such manners or modes of inquiry are related to, and differ from, other types of inquiry, for instance medical or mathematical. In this special issue of History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis, we wish to concentrate in particular on ancient modes of inquiry. (shrink)

Dollo's law of the non-reversibility of the phyletic development applies to reduced and missing organs as well as to functioning ones which have adapted their shapes to new conditions of living. Such an organ will never again regain its old structure, not even if the old conditions should return. Numerous instances show that this law only applies in general; exceptions prove that it does not apply absolutely, so that it is not really a law, but a rule. The larvae and (...) pupae of Chironomidae live, with relatively few exceptions, in water. Terrestrial species of the Chironomidae are undoubtedly descended from the aquatic. Of the Orthocladiinae-genusPseudosmittia, only species of which the larvae live on the earth were known up to now; the larva of the new speciesPseudosmittia Ruttneri has secondarily reverted to aquatic life. In them a number of their ancestors' adaptations have, it is true, remained intact; two such characteristics, however, have again taken the shape characteristic of aquatic life. So here we have a return to the original phylogenetic stage, as a result of the return of the original conditions of life. The specific pupal organs of the Trichoptera, adaptations to aquatic life, have completely disappeared in the purely terrestrialEnoicyla pusilla, they have partly disappeared in the semi-terrestrial original Trichopterae from the genusBeraea andCrunoecia. So here, too, we have a return to an original phylogenetic condition. In both cases ”réversibilité de l'évolution”.La thèse deDollo de la non-réversibilité de l'évolution phylogénétique se rapporte aussi bien aux organes réduits ou disparus, qu'aux organes en fonction, qui, dans de nouvelles conditions de vie ont changé leur forme; même au retour des anciennes conditions, un tel organe ne pourrait plus jamais obtenir sa structure originale. De nombreux exemples montrent que cette thèse il est vrai, est valable d'une façon générale; qu'elle n'est cependant pas absolue, donc qu'elle n'est point une loi, mais seulement une règle est prouvé par des exceptions. Ici nous montrons deux nouveaux exemples de ces exceptions: Les larves et les nymphes chironomides vivent dans l'eau, sauf des exceptions relativement peu nombreuses. Des espèces terrestres parmi les chironomides dérivent, sans aucun doute, de formes aquatiques. Du genre orthocladiinePseudosmittia, on ne connaissait jusqu'à présent que des espèces de larves vivant dans la terre; la larve de la nouvelle espècePseudosmittia Ruttneri a passé secondairement à la vie aquatique. Là, il est vrai qu'un nombre d'adaptations de forme de ces ancêtres à la vie terrestre se sont maintenues; deux de ces marques cependant, ont recouvré l'empreinte caractéristique de la vie aquatique. Ainsi retour à l'ancien stade phylogénétique quand reviennent les conditions de vie originales. Les organes spécifiques des nymphes des trichoptères, des adaptations à la vie aquatique, ont complètement disparu chezEnoicyla pusilla, qui est uniquement terrestre. Chez les trichoptères de source des genresBeraea etCrunoecia qui sont miterrestres, ils ont disparu en partie. Donc, il y a ici aussi un retour à une ancienne situation phylogénétique. Dans les deux cas: Réversibilité de l'évolution. (shrink)

Chez Auguste Comte, la connaissance ne saurait dépasser la sphère des lois scientifiques. Aussi la philosophie positive, expression par laquelle Comte désigne sa conception, se définit-elle comme une discipline ayant pour objet la coordination des faits observés, sans nulle prétention à aller au-delà des acquisitions de la science expérimentale.Cette philosophie positive d'Auguste Comte porte aussi le nom de positivisme, qui, chez Auguste Comte, désigne la conception selon laquelle l'esprit humain ne saurait atteindre le fond des choses et doit se borner (...) à la seule recherche des lois de la nature, conçues comme des relation s invariables de succession et de similitude. (shrink)

In A General View of Positivism French philosopher Auguste Comte gives an overview of his social philosophy known as Positivism. Comte, credited with coining the term 'sociology' and one of the first to argue for it as a science, is concerned with reform, progress and the problem of social order in society. In this English edition of the work, published in 1865, he addresses the practical problems of implementing his philosophy or doctrine, as he also refers to Positivism, into society. (...) He believes that society evolves through a series of stages that are ruled by social laws and culminate in a superior form of social life. During this reorganisation of society, which will find its greatest supporters among women and the working class, a 'new moral power' will emerge. Under the motto 'love, order and progress' Comte wishes humanism to replace organised religion as the object of spiritual worship. (shrink)