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
The apparent indifference of the public, to whom all the existing
parties seemed equally devoid of insight into the political future,
was at last mistaken by a blind government for tacit consent to its
unwise schemes. The cause of Progress was in danger. Then came the
memorable crisis of 1830, by which the system of reaction, introduced
thirty-six years previously, was brought to an end. The convictions
which that system inspired were indeed so superficial, that its
supporters came of their own accord to disavow them, and to uphold in
their own fashion the chief revolutionary doctrines. These again were
abandoned by their previous supporters on their accession to power.
When the history of these times is written, nothing will give a clearer
view of the revulsion of feeling on both sides, than the debates which
took place on Liberty of Education. Within a period of twenty years,
it was alternately demanded and refused by both; and this in behalf of
the same principles, as they were called, though it was in reality a
question of interest rather than principle on either side.
All previous convictions being thus thoroughly upset, more room was
left for the instinctive feeling of the public; and the question of
reconciling the spirit of Order with that of Progress now came into
prominence. It was the most important of all problems, and it was now
placed in its true light. But this only made the absence of a solution
more manifest; and the principle of the solution existed nowhere but in
Positivism, which as yet was immature. All the opinions of the day had
become alike utterly incompatible both with Order and with Progress.
The Conservative school undertook to reconcile the two; but it had no
constructive power; and the only result of its doctrine was to give
equal encouragement to anarchy and to reaction, so as to be able always
to neutralize the one by the other. The establishment of Constitutional
Monarchy was now put forward as the ultimate issue of the great
Revolution. But no one could seriously place any real confidence in a
system so alien to the whole character of French history, offering as
it did nothing but a superficial and unwise imitation of a political
anomaly essentially peculiar to England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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