A General View of Positivism: Or, Summary exposition of the System of Thought and LifeComte, Auguste
Philosophy
A General View of Positivism: Or, Summary exposition of the System of Thought and Life
Comte, Auguste
Positivism
Positivism, being more pacific and more efficacious than Communism,
because more true, is also broader and more complete in its solution
of great social problems. The superficial view of property, springing
too often from envious motives, which condemns Inheritance because
it admits of possession without labour, is not subversive merely,
but narrow. From the moral point of view we see at once the radical
weakness of these empirical reproaches. They show blindness to the
fact that this mode of transmitting wealth is really that which is
most likely to call out the temper requisite for its right employment.
It saves the mind and the heart from the mean and sordid habits which
are so often engendered by slow accumulation of capital. The man who
is born to wealth is more likely to feel the wish to be respected. And
thus those whom we are inclined to condemn as idlers may very easily
become the most useful of the rich classes, under a wise reorganization
of opinions and habits. Of course too, since with the advance of
Civilization the difficulty of living without industry increases, the
class that we are speaking of becomes more and more exceptional. In
every way, then, it is a most serious mistake to wish to upset society
on account of abuses which are already in course of removal, and which
admit of conversion to a most beneficial purpose.
[Intellect needs moral
control as much as wealth]
Again, another feature in which the Positivist solution surpasses the
Communist, is the remarkable completeness of its application. Communism
takes no account of anything but wealth; as if wealth were the only
power in modern society badly distributed and administered. In reality
there are greater abuses connected with almost every other power that
man possesses; and especially with the powers of intellect; yet these
our visionaries make not the smallest attempt to rectify. Positivism
being the only doctrine that embraces the whole sphere of human
existence, is therefore the only doctrine that can elevate Social
Feeling to its proper place, by extending it to all departments of
human activity without exception. Identification, in a moral sense, of
private functions with public duties is even more necessary in the case
of the scientific man or the artist, than in that of the proprietor;
whether we look at the source from which his powers proceed, or at
the object to which they should be directed. Yet the men who wish to
make material wealth common, the only kind of wealth that can be held
exclusively by an individual, never extend their utopian scheme to
intellectual wealth, in which it would be far more admissible. In fact
the apostles of Communism often come forward as zealous supporters
of what they call literary property. Such inconsistencies show the
shallowness of the system; it proclaims its own failure in the very
cases that are most favourable for the application. The extension of
the principle here suggested would expose at once the inexpediency
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account