The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte

Positive Philosophy and The Automation of Reason

logical analysis consists in the application of deductive reasoning to analysis of arguments, of concepts, of theories or doctrines. The application to arguments may be considered to be primary, and in this case the idea is that in any domain in which reason is thought to be applicable, modern logical methods can be used to improve the rigour of the reasoning. The idea here is much as it was in...

Auguste D and Alzheimer's disease.

On Nov 4, 1906, Alois Alzheimer gave a remarkable lecture, in which he described for the first time a form of dementia that subsequently, at the suggestion of Emil Kraepelin, became known as Alzheimer’s disease. In his lecture, at the 37th Conference of South-West German Psychiatrists in Tübingen, Alzheimer described a patient called Auguste D, a 51-year-old woman from Frankfurt who had shown p...

Positive Philosophy, Freedom and Democracy

Comte, Mach, Planck, and Eddington: a Study of Influence across Generations

Auguste Comte is frequently ridiculed by astronomers for saying that human beings would never be able to know the physical nature and constitution of the stars. His philosophy, however, influenced scientists throughout his lifetime and for over a century after his death. That influence is traced here in the work of three outstanding scientists who spanned, roughly speaking, three successive gen...

Philosophy of Philosophy of Religion