System of Positive Polity (3 Volumes out of 4)

Auguste Comte

London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1875

8vo. Volumes 1 through 3 of 4. Hardcover. No dust jackets as issued. Rebound at some point in green cloth with replaced endpapers. Tight bindings and solid boards. Minimal shelf wear. Slight bumping to corners. Institutional library bookplates inside front boards from the Columbia University. Scattered markings/underlining throughout. An attractive set in very good condition, this nearly complete anthology collects Comte's ideas on the philosophy of Positivism.

Auguste Comte (1798-1857) is the founder of positivism, a philosophical and political movement which enjoyed a very wide diffusion in the second half of the nineteenth century. It sank into an almost complete oblivion during the twentieth, when it was eclipsed by neopositivism. However, Comte's decision to develop successively a philosophy of mathematics, a philosophy of physics, a philosophy of chemistry and a philosophy of biology, makes him the first philosopher of science in the modern sense, and his constant attention to the social dimension of science resonates in many respects with current points of view. His political philosophy, on the other hand, is even less known, because it differs substantially from the classical political philosophy we have inherited. 

This is an oversized or heavy book, which requires additional postage for international delivery outside the US.