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
There is an excellent custom prevalent among the working men of France
and creditable to their good sense, with which our educational scheme
seems at first sight incompatible. I refer to the custom of travelling
from place to place during the last years of apprenticeship; which
is as beneficial to their mind and character, as the purposeless
excursions of our wealthy and idle classes are in most cases injurious.
But there is no necessity for its interfering with study, since it
always involves long residence in the chief centres of production,
where the workman is sure to find annual courses of lectures similar
to those which he would otherwise have been attending at home.
As the structure and distribution of the philosophic body will
be everywhere the same, there need be no great inconvenience in
these changes. For every centre not more than seven teachers will
be required; each of whom will take the whole Encyclopædic scale
successively. Thus the total number of lectures will be so small as
to admit of a high standard of merit being everywhere attained, and
of finding everywhere a fair measure of material support. So far from
discouraging the travelling system, Positivism will give it a new
character, intellectually and socially, by extending the range of
travel to the whole of Western Europe, since there is no part of it in
which the workman will not be able to prosecute his education. The
difference of language will then be no obstacle. Not only would the
sense of fraternity among Western nations be strengthened by such a
plan, but great improvement would result esthetically. The languages
of Europe would be learnt more thoroughly, and there would be a
keener appreciation of works of art, whether musical, pictorial, or
architectural; for these can never be properly appreciated but in the
country which gave them birth.
[Concentration of study]
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