The Worlds of Positivism : A Global Intellectual History, 1770–1930

This Book Is The First To Trace The Origins And Significance Of Positivism On A Global Scale. Taking Their Cues From Auguste Comte And John Stuart Mill, Positivists Pioneered A Universal, Experience-based Culture Of Scientific Inquiry For Studying Nature And Society?a New Science That Would Enlighten All Of Humankind. Positivists Envisaged One World United By Science, But Their Efforts Spawned Many. Uncovering These Worlds Of Positivism, The Volume Ranges From India, The Ottoman Empire, And The Iberian Peninsula To Central Europe, Russia, And Brazil, Examining Positivism?s Impact As One Of The Most Far-reaching Intellectual Movements Of The Modern World. Positivists Reinvented Science, Claiming It To Be Distinct From And Superior To The Humanities. They Predicated Political Governance On Their Refashioned Science Of Society, And As Political Activists, They Sought And Often Failed To Reconcile Their Universalism With The Values Of Multiculturalism. Providing A Genealogy Of Scientific Governance That Is Sorely Needed In An Age Of Post-truth Politics, This Volume Breaks New Ground In The Fields Of Intellectual And Global History, The History Of Science, And Philosophy. Johannes Feichtinger; Franz L. Fillafer, Jan Surman, Editors. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvi Introduction: Particularizing Positivism (Franz L. Fillafer, Johannes Feichtinger, Jan Surman)....Pages 1-27 Front Matter ....Pages 29-29 Striking a Chord: The Reception of Comte’s Positivism in Colonial India (Geraldine Forbes)....Pages 31-51 Positivism, Revolution, and History in Brazil (Elías José Palti)....Pages 53-80 Positivism in the Late Ottoman Empire: The “Young Turks” as Mediators and Multipliers (M. Sait Özervarlı)....Pages 81-108 Front Matter ....Pages 109-109 An Enlightened Path to Positivism? Reflections on the Institutionalization of Science in Bourbon Spain (Jorge Fernández-Santos Ortiz-Iribas, Sara Muniain Ederra)....Pages 111-135 Trading Epistemological Insults: “Positive Knowledge” and Natural Science in Germany, 1800–1850 (Denise Phillips)....Pages 137-154 The French Philosophical Crisis of the 1860s and the Invention of the “Positivist School” (Nathalie Richard)....Pages 155-188 Front Matter ....Pages 189-189 Habsburg Positivism: The Politics of Positive Knowledge in Imperial and Post-Imperial Austria, 1804–1938 (Franz L. Fillafer, Johannes Feichtinger)....Pages 191-238 The Contexts of Early Polish Positivisms, 1840s–1900s (Jan Surman)....Pages 239-272 Positivism in Late Tsarist Russia: Its Introduction, Penetration, and Diffusion (Thomas Nemeth)....Pages 273-291 Front Matter ....Pages 293-293 Positivism in the Northern Peripheries: Generations of Positivist Philosophers in Sweden and Its Neighboring Countries (Johan Strang)....Pages 295-320 Dilthey and Carnap: The Feeling of Life, the Scientific Worldview, and the Elimination of Metaphysics (Eric S. Nelson)....Pages 321-346 Front Matter ....Pages 347-347 The Worlds of Positivism: An Analytical Synopsis (Franz L. Fillafer, Johannes Feichtinger)....Pages 349-356 Back Matter ....Pages 357-367 This book is the first to trace the origins and significance of positivism on a global scale. Taking their cues from Auguste Comte and John Stuart Mill, positivists pioneered a universal, experience-based culture of scientific inquiry毲 studying nature and societya new science that would enlighten all of humankind. Positivists envisaged one world united by science, but their efforts spawned many. Uncovering these worlds of positivism, the volume ranges from India, the Ottoman Empire, and the Iberian Peninsula to Central Europe, Russia, and Brazil, examining positivisms impact as one of the most far-reaching intellectual movements of the modern world. Positivists reinvented science, claiming it to be distinct from and superior to the humanities. They predicated political governance on their refashioned science of society, and as political activists, they sought and often failed to reconcile their universalism with the values of multiculturalism. Providing a genealogy of scientific governance that is sorely needed in an age of post-truth politics, this volume breaks new ground in the fields of intellectual and global history, the history of science, and philosophy Annotation Traces the origins and significance of positivism on a global scale. Taking their cues from Auguste Comte and John Stuart Mill, positivists pioneered a universal, experience-based culture of scientific inquiry for studying nature and society-a new science that would enlighten all of humankind. Positivists envisaged one world united by science, but their efforts spawned many. Uncovering these worlds of positivism, the volume ranges from India, the Ottoman Empire, and the Iberian Peninsula to Central Europe, Russia, and Brazil, examining positivism's impact as one of the most far-reaching intellectual movements of the modern world