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
They may be described as the involuntary servants of voluntary
subordinates. It is not chimerical to conceive Positivist society
so organized that its theoretical and practical directors, with all
their personal advantages, will often regret that they were not born,
or that they did not remain, in the condition of workmen. The only
solid satisfaction which great minds have hitherto found in political
or spiritual power has been that, being more occupied with public
interests, they had a wider scope for the exercise of social feeling.
But the excellence of the future condition of society will be, that the
possibility of combining public and private life will be open to all.
The humblest citizen will be able to influence not by command but by
counsel, in proportion to his energy and worth.
All the views brought forward in this chapter bear out the statement
with which it began, that the Proletariate forms the principal basis
of the social system, not merely as finally constituted, but in its
present state of transition; and admitting this, the present state will
be seen to have no essential difference from the normal future to which
it tends. The principal conditions of our transitional policy were
described at the conclusion of the last chapter. The security for these
conditions is to be found in the natural tendencies of the people of
Western Europe, and especially of France. Our governors will do well to
follow these tendencies instead of attempting to lead them; for they
are in perfect keeping with the two great requirements of the present
time, Liberty and Public Order.
[The working classes are the
best guarantee for Liberty
and for Order]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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