19th Century
A01=Mary Pickering
Author_Mary Pickering
Biography
Category=DNBM
Category=QDHH
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
forthcoming
French Revolution
Hazareesingh
history
humanism
Intellectual
JS Mill
math
Nietzsche
Paris
philosophy
positivism
Saint-Simon
science
secularism
sociology
Product details
- ISBN 9781836392453
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 01 Sep 2026
- Publisher: Reaktion Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Born during the ferment of the French Revolution, Auguste Comte was one of the foremost thinkers of the nineteenth century, his ideas influencing social reformers, philosophers, politicians and scientists. Advocating for what he called ‘the science of society’, he contended that facts and reason alone should matter in public discourse. But while Comte strove to create social harmony, he suffered from repeated disasters in his personal and professional life that ultimately endangered his health and undermined his project. An avid self-dramatizer, Comte’s increasingly erratic behaviour stood at odds with his philosophy of ‘order and progress’.
This readable intellectual and personal biography of the enigmatic thinker explains Comte’s importance to modern Western thought, and provides a fascinating psychological portrait of a deeply troubled yet brilliant man.
Mary Pickering is Professor of Modern European History at San Jose State University. She is the author of the three-volume Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography.
