THE
PHILOSOPHY OF AUGUSTE COMTE
THE
PHILOSOPHY OF AUGUSTE COMTE
BY
L. LÉVY-BRUHL
Maître de Conférences de Philosophie à la Faculté des Lettres
de l’Université de Paris,
Professeur à l’Ecole libre des Sciences politiques.
AUTHORISED TRANSLATION
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED
AN INTRODUCTION
BY
FREDERIC HARRISON, M.A.
Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford
London
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. Lim.
Paternoster Square
1903
v
NOTE
BY
MR. FREDERIC HARRISON
The publication in 1900 of Professor Lévy-Bruhl’svolume The Philosophy of Auguste Comte was anevent in the history of the Positive movement. Theeminent position in the University of Paris and inrecent philosophical history that is held by Prof. Lévy-Bruhlgave great interest and importance to asystematic judgment from his pen such as the presentwork. The commemorative festival of Comte heldthis year, when the statue in the Place de la Sorbonnewas unveiled by the Minister of War, in presence ofan international gathering of delegates from thecivilised world, has called fresh attention to the lifeworkof the philosopher who died 45 years ago. Accordingly,a translation of Professor Lévy-Bruhl’s bookwas urgently demanded. When I was invited to addto this translation, which I can confidently recommendto students of philosophy, a slight introductory essay,I proposed to use a piece which I wrote on thepublication of the French work. It appeared in “TheSpeaker,” (14 April, 1900;) and, as I see no reason tomodify my opinion of this masterly book, I leave itvinearly as then written. I may add that the learnedProfessor was a member of the International Committeewith many eminent representatives of the governmentof France and of the Universities of the Old and NewWorld, which in May last raised the monument toAuguste Comte in Paris.
Professor Lévy-Bruhl followed up his History ofModern Philosophy in France by a substantial workon the philosophy of Auguste Comte. It forms avolume of the Bibliothèque de Philosophie Contemporaine,which has already devoted four other worksto the Positive Philosophy. It is as well to premisethat this treatise dealt solely with the philosophy, notwith the polity, or any part of the religious scheme ofComte. Professor Lévy-Bruhl writes as a student,but not as an adherent of Auguste Comte. Hisentire work is rather an exposition, not a refutation,or a criticism, or an advocacy of Comte’sphilosophical system. But it may be said at once thatno one abroad or at home, certainly neither Mill, norLewes, nor Spencer, nor Caird, has so truly graspedand assimilated Comte’s ideas as M. Lévy-Bruhl hasdone.
In his Introduction M. Lévy-Bruhl very clearlystates the scope of his work, and his own generalattitude. He traces the origin of Comte’s philosophyin