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
During the latter portion of primary Education, which is devoted to
the culture of the imaginative powers, the philosophic development
of the individual, corresponding to that of the race, will carry
him from the simple Fetichism with which he began to the state of
Polytheism. This resemblance between the growth of the individual and
that of society has always shown itself more or less, in spite of the
irrational precautions of Christian teachers. They have never been
able to give children a distaste for those simple tales of fairies and
genii, which are natural to this phase. The Positivist teacher will
let this tendency take its own course. It should not, however, involve
any hypocrisy on the part of the parents, nor need it lead to any
subsequent contradiction. The simple truth is enough. The child may
be told that these spontaneous beliefs are but natural to his age, but
that they will gradually lead him on to others, by the fundamental law
of all human development. Language of this kind will not only have the
advantage of familiarizing him with a great principle of Positivism,
but will stimulate the nascent sense of sociability, by leading him
to sympathize with the various nations who still remain at his own
primitive stage of intellectual development.
[The second part consists
of public lectures on the
Sciences, from Mathematics
to Sociology]
The second part of Positivist Education cannot be conducted altogether
at home, since it involves public lectures, in which of course the
part taken by the parent can only be accessory. But this is no reason
for depriving the pupil of the advantages of family life; it remains
as indispensable as ever to his moral development, which is always to
be the first consideration. It will be easy for him to follow the best
masters without weakening his sense of personal and domestic morality,
which is the almost inevitable result of the monastic seclusion of
modern schools. The public-school system is commonly thought to
compensate for these disadvantages, by the knowledge of the world which
it gives; but this is better obtained by free intercourse with society,
where sympathies are far more likely to be satisfied. Recognition
of this truth would do much to facilitate and improve popular
education; and it applies to all cases, except perhaps to some special
professions, where seclusion of the pupils may still be necessary,
though even in these cases probably it may be ultimately dispensed with.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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