Auguste Comte and Positivism.

£185 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

The first edition in book form, reprinted from the Edinburgh Review, of Mill's study of the French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857), who formulated the doctrine of Positivism - that is the conviction that 'knowledge of the successions and co-existences of phaenomena is the sole knowledge accessible to us' (p.7), i.e. that knowledge is derived by reason or logic from sensory experience. Comte was an important influence on Mill (1806-1873), who had begun studying the Frenchman's Cours de Philosophie Positive in the 1830s, and began corresponding with Comte in 1841. First edition in book form; 8vo (23 x 15 cm); 2pp ads to rear, bookplate to front pastedown, occasional light spotting; publisher's purple cloth, spine and covers faded, spine further split at lower joint; [2], 200, 2[ads]pp.

• Binding: Hardcover

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