That is not exactly a number to celebrate, rather one to examine – in facebook terms it is a rather modest number. I opened the facbook page of global positivism on March 15, 2012 with a bit of curiosity about the new features facebook was to give... Read More | Share it now!
The Positivists | by Edward James Mortimer Collins
from: Edward James Mortimer Collins, The British Birds, A Communication from the Ghost of Aristophanes. London: The Publishing Co., 1872. To Professor Tyndall Life and the Universe show spontaneity: Down with ridiculous notions of Deity! Churches and... Read More | Share it now!
A General View of Positivism (1848), introduction | by Auguste Comte
From the “introductory remarks” to Auguste Comte, A General View of Positivism , Bridges, J.H. (tr.) (London: Trubner and Co., 1865/ 2nd ed. 1880), pp. 1-5. Reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ISBN 978-1-108-00064-2. Positivism... Read More | Share it now!
New edition of Auguste Comte’s ‘Cours de philosophie positive’, Lessons 46-51 (1830-42)
The volume contains Comte’s first six lessons on sociology edited and freshly annotated by Michel Bourdeau, Laurent Clauzade, and Frédéric Dupin. Political arguments showing the necessity and timeliness of the science of society Survey of... Read More | Share it now!
My bet against it: No Kurdish state in the next 4 years
What a task to bet against you, Mustafa! – especially since I love the idea of small states (as long as they are ready to enjoy a relative position in something larger like the EU) (I would actually invite all the world to become EU-States). As to... Read More | Share it now!
I bet: We will see a Kurdish state created in Iraq before the end of 2016
Let me (with that look at Istanbul, “the future capital of the Positivist Empire” and the fragmentation Michel discussed) – risk a bet, seriously: I contend that within the next three or four years we will see the emergence of an... Read More | Share it now!
dOCUMENTA (13), first day, first images
Website: http://d13.documenta.de/de/ Place: Kassel When: June 9 till September 16, 2012 documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator... Read More | Share it now!
Polity in a cosmic context
Comte had an acute feeling for the way humanity is dependent on astronomical conditions – assume small changes in the elliptical orbit of Earth, in the inclination of Ecliptic, and life, at least life as we know it, would have been impossible.... Read More | Share it now!
O May I Join the Choir Invisible. | by George Eliot
“O MAY I JOIN THE CHOIR INVISIBLE.” Longum illud tempus, quum non ero, magis me movet, quam hoc exiguum. —Cicero, ad Att., xii. 18. O MAY I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their... Read More | Share it now!
On the Temples of Atheism
Ah, Paul, I am not quite sure about what to think of the present hype surrounding atheism (and humanism following closey in its wake). It’s turning into something that enjoys a peculiarly mixed support wherever we hope for an agency to defeat... Read More | Share it now!
The Uses and Abuses of Secular Saints
Today’s date in the Positivist calendar, devised by Auguste Comte in 1849, is Caesar 24, 224. The fifth month of this 13 month calendar is devoted to Military Civilization, if that’s not an oxymoron, and is therefore stuffed with 28... Read More | Share it now!
The man who might become Germany’s next president
Returning from a few days in Amsterdam I see Germany’s media embracing Joachim Gauck on his way to become the nation’s next president. An undercurrent of hidden fears is part of this embrace. The last president has just resigned. Even if he never... Read More | Share it now!
Welcome!
Within less than 200 years positivism – primarily a methodological decision to discuss “facts” instead of “ideas”, “sensations” or “matter” – has turned from a challenging philosophical... Read More | Share it now!