Prophet of Science

A fascinating portrait of Auguste Comte, nineteenth-century mathematician and philosopher Born during the ferment of the French Revolution, Auguste Comte was one of the foremost thinkers of the nineteenth century, whose ideas influenced social reformers, philosophers, politicians and scientists around the world. Advocating for what he called ‘the science of society’, he contended that all knowledge should be grounded in ‘observable phenomena’, that facts and reason alone should matter in public discourse. But while Comte strove to create social harmony based on a shared intellectual outlook, he suffered from repeated disasters in his personal and professional life that ultimately endangered his health and undermined his project. In fact, Comte was an avid self-dramatizer whose increasingly erratic behaviour seemed to stand at odds with his philosophy of ‘order and progress’. Mary Pickering has written a readable intellectual and personal biography of this enigmatic thinker, which not only explains his importance to modern Western thought, but also provides a fascinating psychological portrait of a deeply troubled yet brilliant man. 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.