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Auguste Comte and the Religion of Humanity The Post-Theistic Program of French Social Theory

Auguste Comte and the Religion of Humanity The Post-Theistic Program of French Social Theory This book offers an exciting reinterpretation of Auguste Comte, the founder of French sociology. Following the development of his philosophy of positivism, Comte later focussed on the importance of the emotions in his philosophy, resulting in the creation of a new religious system, the Religion of Humanity. Andrew Wernick provides the ®rst in-depth critique of Comte's concept of religion and its place in his thinking on politics, sociology and philosophy of science. He places Comte's ideas in the context of post-1789 French political and intellectual history, and of modern philosophy, especially post- modernism. Wernick relates Comte to Marx and Nietzsche as seminal ®gures of modernity and examines key features of modern and postmodern French social theory, tracing the inherent ¯aws and disintegration of Comte's system. Wernick offers original and fasci- nating insights in this rich study which will attract a wide audience from sociologists and philosophers to cultural theorists and historians. andrew wernick is Professor of Cultural Studies and Sociology at Trent University, Ontario, Canada. He is director of the Center for the Study of Theory, Culture and Politics, and Director of the Graduate Program in Methodologies for the Study of Western History and Culture. His publications include Promotional Culture (1991), Shadow of Spirit: Religion and Postmodernism (with P. Berry, 1993) and Images of Ageing (with M. Featherstone, 1994).