Auguste Comte and the Religion of Humanity
The Post-theistic Program of French Social Theory

$41.99 (C)

Author: Andrew Wernick, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario

Date Published: November 2005
availability: Available
format: Paperback
isbn: 9780521023627

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Description

This book offers an exciting reinterpretation of Auguste Comte, the founder of French sociology. Andrew Wernick provides the first in-depth critique of Comte's concept of religion and its place in his thinking on politics, sociology and philosophy of science. He places Comte's ideas within the context of post-1789 French political and intellectual history, and of modern philosophy, especially postmodernism. Wernick relates Comte to Marx and Nietzsche as seminal figures of modernity and examines key features of modern and postmodern French social theory, tracing the inherent flaws and disintegration of Comte's system.
- First in-depth critique of Comte's concept of religion - the Religion of Humanity - and its place in his thinking on politics, sociology and philosophy of science
- Accomplished scholarly appraisal of Comte's later work, in English
- Provides new basis for understanding modern French social theory tradition (from Durkheim and Bataille to the postmoderns), in relation to Comte's project and system
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Reviews & endorsements
'Mr Wernick's book on August Comte is brilliant. ... (He) succeeds admirably in placing Comte's religion in the context of his time and in the history of social theory in France. … This book will give any reader pause to reflect on the distinctiveness of French social theory, the problem of defining a community, and the relationship between politics and religion in both its theistic and post-theistic forms.' Mary Pickering, San Jose State University, California

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Product details
- Date Published: November 2005
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521023627
- length: 292 pages
- dimensions: 229 x 154 x 19 mm
- weight: 0.45kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: rethinking Comte
2. The system and its logic (1): from positive philosophy to social science
3. The system and its logic (2): from sociology to the subjective synthesis
4. Religion and the crisis of industrialism
5. Love and the social body
6. The path to perfection
7. Humanity as 'le vrai grand-être'
8. Socio-theology after Comte
References
Index.
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Author
Andrew Wernick, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario
Andrew Wernick is Professor of Cultural Studies and Sociology at Trent University, Ontario, Canada. He is Director of the Center for the Study of Theory, Culture and Politics, and Director of the Graduate Program in Methodologies for the Study of Western History and Culture. His publications include Promotional Culture (1991), Shadow of Spirit: Religion and Postmodernism (with P Berry, 1993) and Images of Ageing (with M Featherstone, 1994).