A collection of new essays on Auguste Comte by leading Comte scholars, social theorists, philosophers and intellectual historians. The collection aims to further the critical re-examination of Auguste Comte, an important but long neglected figure, while also providing a multi-faceted introduction to key aspects of his thought, its genesis and its place in the modern Western tradition.

Acknowledgements; Introduction - Andrew Wernick; 1. Auguste Comte and the Second Scientific Revolution - Johan Heilbron; 2. 'Structure' and 'genesis' and Comte's conception of social science - Derek Robbins; 3. The social and the political in the work of Auguste Comte - Jean Terrier; 4. The counter-revolutionary Comte: theorist of the two powers and enthusiastic medievalist - Carolina Armenteros; 5. The "great crisis": Comte, Nietzsche and the religion question - Andrew Wernick; 6. "Les ar-z et les sciences": aesthetic theory and aesthetic politics in Comte's late work - Stefanos Geroulanos; 7. Comte's civic comedy: secular religion and modern morality in the age of classical sociology - Thomas Kemple; 8. Auguste Comte and the curious case of English women - Mary Pickering; 9. Comte and his liberal critics: from Spencer to Hayek - Mike Gane; 10. Living after positivism, but not without it - Robert C. Scharff; Appendix A: Calendrier positiviste, ou tableau concret de la preparation humaine; Appendix B: Classification positive des dix-huit fonctions du cerveau, ou Tableau systématique de l'àme; Appendix C: Hiérarchie théorique des conceptions humaines, ou tableau synthétique de l'ordre universel; Appendix D: Tableau des quinze grandes lois de philosophie première, ou principes universels sur lesquels repose le dogme positif; Appendix E: Positivist Library in the Nineteenth Century; Notes on contributors; Index.

Andrew Wernick is emeritus professor of cultural studies and sociology at Trent University, Canada, and a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. A social theorist, intellectual historian, sociologist of culture and sometime jazz musician, he is the author of more than seventy essays on contemporary culture and cultural/social theory. His writings include Promotional Culture: Advertising, Ideology and Symbolic Expression (1991), Auguste Comte and the Religion of Humanity (2001), and the coedited anthologies Shadow of Spirit: Religion and Postmodernism (1992) and Images of Aging: Cultural Representations of Later Life (1995).