Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-03-04
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

Dcows YrF Ensemble du Positicisms par AuausTE ConTE
| Paris, faS.
Sysenae Positive, par AUGUsrE CoNrE. vols
only tw Oh which have yet reached US Paris, 1872
Cattehis Positpiste Sommare Exposition de Ia Region
UnirsfAe, par AuGusTE CoMTE. Paris, 1852
In re$ming, according to our engagement, the
consideration OF NJ CoMTE's philosophical teach
ings, w9hope our readers will not be frightened by
such formidable array Of volumes as is presented
at the bad Of our present paper. We do not pro-
pose bj any hydrostatc pressure Of our own to con-
dense fn brace of newspaper columns any thing
! like lompendious statement of the doctrines con-
tainedln the above cited works of NJ Comte; neither
do wel intend to make them separately the subject
of formal criticism. But we have thought that our
enumeAtion Of these volumes might be the means
Of dirating the attention Of such Of our readers as
are interested in philosophical specnlations to- the
principal writings Of distinguished and profound
thinar, and would serve at the same time table
of cohients TO the present article. in which pur-
4 pose to sketch a hasty and imperfect resume of
Comtes philosophical doctrine and method
| The Positive Philosophy, or the Philosophy Of
Fact aims to generalize all science, and to reduce
to system all that pertains to man in his rela-
tons to his fellows 1t seeks to create philosophy
of the SCIENCES the basis of new pohty and re-
ligon. 1t proposes to develop social and political
science in which all the phenomena shall be investi-
gated on the same positive method as that which
obtains in the physical sciences At present the
knowledge Of the world, according to M. Comte, is
both disjointed and in contradiction with itself,
The different sciences which compose the sum total
of human knowledge, according to his dea are not
all alike subjected to the principles of investi
cation and Interpretation, and therefore lack that
unifying and co-oidinatng element which they need
in order to bind them into symmetrical and homo
! 80 rIahl
he thinks that such confusion of ideas should obtain
among men, since they in the pursuit of know
ledge only in such opposite directions, but also
their researches according to such contradictory
principles. -:.
NJ. Comte has enunciated the fundamental law of hu-
progress in the following There but three
phases of intellectual eYoutionor the individual for
the mass of the racehe theological, the metaphysical
and the positive. All science either passed or is
still passing through the former two phases before it has
reached is destined to reach the ultimate positive
form of knowledge. Philosophy is defined by to be
Gan explanation Of the phenomena Of the universe"
These phenomena will of course be differently viewed &C
cordng to the stand point from which they regarded
In the earlier period of individual life and in the
earlier history of the race NJ Comte discovers in
tendency to regard all phenomena subject to the arb
trary conroof certain unknown and supernatural agen
considered products Of certain superior powers who
preside over the universe This NJ. Comte calls the
aRsH f IN %oaothssS Which end Ras i'll i'll
things as subject only to the caprice Of single supreme
intelligence. In the second period the notion of
PRECIOUS deities of personal God is superseded BY
certain abstract entitcs which believed to inhere in
the nature of things and which, being nvarabe, the
phenomena arising from them may be reduced into scion
tfc Thus the saving of the old expert
menters that "nature has horror of vacuum IS an
illustration Of that metaphysical explanation Of phenomena
which prevails during the second epoch of human pro-
gress in its intellectual strivngs after knowledge The
defect this phase is found in the fact that it reasons
without proof and seeks to penetrate into the essence OF
things and thus attempts subjects above our ken ana
respecting which assert experimental or posi-
tive certtude The science of this period deals with g
ments rather than facts In the third positive stage
of knowledge we conGne researches to the relations
of things and watch the operations OF nature as they
present themselves to observation, without seeking
to discover any thing beyond the facts and the laws ac
cordng to which they produced The pretension to
absolute knowledge is here discarded The mind simply
regards phenomena themselves and traces the laws Oh
their development This according to NJ. Come, is the
only true science the production of which the two be-
fore mentioned and anecedent stages OF intellectual ac
! siyity were merely provisional aud preparatory.
We are disposed to admit such general law Of
buuan deyelopmen. as that thus stated by NJ. Comte
but we object to its ermnology nor are we prepared
believe that positive nductive science is reached by
remuneration of all theo illogical and metaphysical ideas
NJ Comts would enc the first stage OF this intellectual
as the pseudo theological and the second as k
ns.n1o scal and would then recognise theo
logical and metaphysical science existing conempo
raneousy with positive PHILOSOPHY, and only needing
to be investigated by the proper method IN order to
admitted on the hierarchy of sciences We think
would relieve this theory os progressive development
much prejudice and 1T the same time caus
It to conform more closely to the facts of tae case TO
we suppose theology to be legitimate science q
physics and that metaphysics compose science whic
NAV be called not so much branch Of study neces
s,ty of ell intellectual activity, inasmuch every de
par,nent of human knowledge, when conducted to 1t
ultimate generazatons leads inevitably into
of metaphysical researches When NJ. Comtc assert
that all real science is in radical and necessary opPc
ston to all theology we beg leave to qualify the FemAr
By limiting to all false theology and when he mocks
all metGphysc, reply by asserting to his sareasms on
SO far as they apply to all that is false in all systems
the science.
Having ascerained in the Of positive philosophy hS
Is that constitutes real science, and what are II
limits and objects of all scientific investigation
Come proceeds to apply the criterion of the positive pm
/, osophy to all the fundamental sciences.
His classification of these sciences must be admitte
,v all to be masterpiece Of profound generazaho
II, arranges them according to law which expresses
Il a,nI ~ tha.rc hipSt