New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-22
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

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Aususts comts. P.rA 1851. troHrIvx POLIrIcs; o.
sTrestise Social Sciences institutins the woshis
Humanity Nsw-Yosk: II. Bslisrs.
Auguste Comte, the founder Of what !,
called the Positire PAiiosophy, was born IN rr,e.
about 1898. Sprung from an eminently Cathesa
and Monarshical family, he vas educated at GA
Of those lyseums in which Bonaparte vainay On.
deavoFed at great cost, TO restore the old mental
preponderance Of the theslogco- metaphysic ~.
sime :" but even in his fourteenth year be hsd h.
come conscious of the need there was for a e.u.
plete political and philoeophic Regeneration. II
was not however for several years asterward thar
his convictions took shape and resulted in the d..
6nitive labor of his life. In the interval he A.A
contracted an intimate intellectual haisos with
SAINT. SIMON, whose influence he considers 10 hs,.
operated disastrously upon him, in divertiny h.
attention from the pursuits Of posisyism to mers
Political action. In the year 1926 he experienced.
in consequence Of oyer-work. brain-fever, which
under iniudicous medical treatment ripsued into
insanity. But his physicians DR.,
nounced his mslady hopeless, and withdrew thar
medication, he began to recover, and in eighteen
months from the attack was well as ever. For
ten years previously to this crisis, aud up to "
year 1882, Comte had supported himself a. phi.
vate teacher Of mathematics laboring faithfully
from six to eight hours day. In the latter year
he was admitted to a very subordinate post in te
Poytechnis School, but even this was saatched
from him by patty party jealousy some seven yssn
afterward, so that now in his old age he finds him.
self reduced again to the necessity Of earning his
daily bread, by taking in private pupils.
The service which Comte had asP'red 10 render
society, during these years of patient drudgery,
may be found exhibited in the six volumes Of his
Cours de Phiosophis Posifirs, the aim Of which
is, by showing the rigid interdepsndence Of tho
sciences or the strictly successive order Of their
development, to educe the grand law OF all mental
evolution, and so lay down a new and positive
basis for philosophy. The vast range Of invest.
CATION embraced in the book, the consummats
mastery it evinces Of the whole field of science,
and the profoundly practical nature OF its conch.
sions stamp it with the highest degree Of import
ance to every one interested in current political
and social problems. The workhoweverh has given
great oiense to the mass Of readers. because Of
the purely materialistic conclusions which the au-
thor does not hesitate to avsw. Comte resol ate.
" ignores the entire spiritual side of man, and
shuts Philosophy up to the mere realm oil sense
His extreme vanity is probably to blame for thu
for an intellect so penetrating as his, IT left unhiu
dered by defective sympathies, could hardly hdto
have done larger justice to humanity. IL Is n-
deed very true that mans knorfedge Is limited TO
finite or phenomenal existence, or that we kaon
nothing which does not fall within the range Of
sense. But man belieres as well as knows. lilo
not merely knows facts, he believes truths. He
not merely knows the finite and phenomenal, he
believes also the infinite and essential. He kaors
the relations Of difference or antagonlsm which
his senses report to him a. existing among all
things; and he beiieres in the absolute unityor
harmony which his reason, or spiritual faculty, re.
ports as underlying and giving birth to this super
fetal discord. Nor is there any warfare between
facts and truths, between knowledge and belief
Facts do not contradict truth or exclude it they
only serve and illustrate it.
Hence it is an extremely narrow conception Of
philosophy to suppose it sonversant merely with
the facts of sensible experience, aud the lawsofco-
ordination they obey. In other words, it is scant
Justice to philosophy torepresent it as concerning
itself with the ultimate ground Of appeal for the
validity of human kaOwisdge," which il the prevs-
lent conception of it's function. knowledge,
whenever the word is used properly, means scns-
bic experience. We know nothing which is not
derived through the senses. Our beliefs, on the
other hand, are derived only through the UNDER
standing. We know facts or things. We believe
truths or propositions. We know innumersble
things which we do not underst md, or cannot ra-
tionally explain. We believe nothing which wsdo
not understand or we believe only in 50 far asws
understand. A person knows only what his senses
testify. In common parlance, indeed, the word %
often used as synonym Of belief, or OF niorma.
ton, as when person says, 81 know that the
earth goes round the sun ''-meaning that be DO.
lieves that truth upon the testimony Of science,
or has learned it from others-Or, IL know
that all the angles Of triangle are equal 70
two right angles" meaning that he has learned
that truth. If men really knew the order Of the
planetary relations, knew the truths Of Geoms.
try then science, the product of rational Obser'
walton, would lose its organization, and fall into
mere sensuous perception. In short, science would
not be.
If then kaoriedgc be convertible with sensible
experience, if in other words man kaows only
what his senses repeat to him, manifestly Pn'oso'
ply sets herself superhuous task in inqunngtas
grounds Of certainty in knoriedge. The appeal
is straight to the very senses, and no one needs
the aid of Philosophy to confde in the teaching o.
his senses. No man ever questioned the testImo'
ny of his Senses when that testimony was er .
plicit. No sane man ever doubted the validity d
his knowledge, when that knowlcsage was exact /
Every man accepts it instr as is psovedH
.he common sang, when we wish to aihnn ''1
intrinsic .ricredbility Of any proposition
wps,d not believe it if saw it THAT u.s. "ou"
not believe even though knew.