Apriorism of August Comte and positivism of William Whewell: communicative dissent by substantial consensus

Alexan­der Yu. Antonovs­ki
Insti­tute of Phi­los­o­phy, Russ­ian Acad­e­my of Sci­ences
Raisa E. Barash
Insti­tute of Soci­ol­o­gy, Russ­ian Acad­e­my of Sci­ences

Apri­or­ism of August Comte and pos­i­tivism of William Whewell: com­mu­nica­tive dis­sent by sub­stan­tial con­sen­sus

Abstract. The arti­cle intro­duces the work by William Whewell “Auguste Comte and the Pos­i­tivism.” It is main­tained by the authors that the Comte’s ideas are con­sid­ered in this essay only as a pre­text and an excuse to declare a gen­er­al protest against the grow­ing crit­i­cal atti­tude rel­a­tive to sci­en­tif­ic and social life, and also both to the evo­lu­tion of nature and sci­ence, and to the devel­op­ment of the social order. This work by Whewell can be called the last man­i­festo of the so-called “old Euro­pean seman­tics” with its doc­trine of “truth per­fec­tion­ism”, which assumes the achieve­ment of the final state in the devel­op­ment of sci­ence, in which the basic truths would be for­mu­lat­ed for­ev­er.

Key­words: William Whewell, Auguste Comte, apri­or­ism, pos­i­tivism, social epis­te­mol­o­gy, social phi­los­o­phy of sci­ence, com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

DOI: 10.5840/dspl20181331

Acknowl­edge­ments

Alexan­der Yu. Antonovs­ki: The report­ed study was fund­ed by Rus-sian Foun­da­tion for Basic Research, project No. 17–03-00812-ОGN “The rise of the phi­los­o­phy of sci­ence. William Hewell, a com­mu­ni­ca-tion cir­cle and its effects for the 20th cen­tu­ry.”

Raisa E. Barash: The report­ed study was fund­ed by Russ­ian Foun­da­tion for Basic Research, project No. 17–03-00733 “The The­o­ry of the Niklas Luhmann’s Com­mu­nica­tive Sys­tems in its Apli­ca­tion to the Russ­ian Soci­ety”.

Ref­er­ences:

  1. Antonovskiy, A.Yu., Barash, R.E. Whewell pro­tiv Kon­ta, ili voz­mozh­na li kom­mu­nikat­siya mezh­du apri­or­iz­mom i poz­i­tiviz­mom? [Whewell vs Comte: Is “Apri­or­izm – Pos­i­tivism” Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Pos­si­ble?], Epistemology&Philosophy of Sci­ence, 2017, vol. 54, iss. 4, pp. 202–208. DOI: 10.5840/eps201754483. (In Russ­ian)
  2. Barash, R.E. Robert King Mer­ton i Flo­ri­an Znanet­skij o «lyudyakh znaniya» i «lyudyakh deistviya» [Robert King Mer­ton and Flo­ri­an Znaniec­ki about “Peo­ple of knowl­edge” and “Peo­ple of Action”], Epistemology&Philosophy of Sci­ence, 2013, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 205–206. (In Russ­ian)
  3. Comte, A. O dukhe poz­i­tivnoi filosofii [On the Spir­it of the Pos­i­tive Phi­los­o­phy]. Moscow: Librokom, 2011. 276 pp. (In Russ­ian)
  4. Har­ré, R. The Prin­ci­ples of Sci­en­tif­ic Think­ing. Lon­don: Macmil­lan, 1970. 334 pp.
  5. Kasavin, I.T. Isto­ki apri­ornogo znaniya [Sours­es of the A Pri­ori Knowl­edge], Epistemology&Philosophy of Sci­ence, 2015, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 223–225. DOI: 10.5840/eps201543142. (In Russ­ian)
  6. Luh­mann, N. Isti­na, znanie, nau­ka kak sis­tema [Truth, Knowl­edge, Sci­ence as a Sys­tem]. Moscow: Logos, 2016. 408 pp. (In Russ­ian)
  7. Mer­ton, R., Barash, R.E. Sot­sial­naya rol che­love­ka znaniya Flo­ri­ana Znanet­sko­go [The Social Role of Flo­ri­an Znaniecki’s “Peo­ple of Knowl­edge], Epistemology&Philosophy of Sci­ence, 2013, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 207–212. (In Russ­ian)
  8. Pis­arev, D.I. Istorich­eskie idei Ogyus­ta Kon­ta [Auguste Comte’s His­tor­i­cal Ideas], in: D.I. Pis­arev. Istorich­eskie eskizy. Izbran­nye statji [His­tor­i­cal Sketch­es. Col­lect­ed Papers]. Moscow: Prav­da, 1989, pp. 340–504. (In Russ­ian)
  9. Richard­son, A. Tol­er­ance, Inter­na­tion­al­ism, and Sci­en­tif­ic Com­mu­ni­ty in Phi­los­o­phy: Polit­i­cal Themes in Phi­los­o­phy of Sci­ence, Past and Present, in: Michael Hei­del­berg­er & Friedrich Stadler (eds) Wis­senschaft­sphiloso­phie und poli­tik; Phi­los­o­phy of Sci­ence and Pol­i­tics. Vien­na: Springer-Ver­lag, 2003, pp. 65–89.
  10. Whewell, W. Filosofiya induk­tivnykh nauk, opi­rayuschayasya na ikh istoriyu [Phi­los­o­phy of Induc­tive Sci­ences, Based on Their His­to­ry], Epistemology&Philosophy of Sci­ence, 2015, vol .43, no. 1, pp. 226–228. DOI: 10.5840/eps201543143. (In Russ­ian)
  11. Whewell, W. Filosofiya induk­tivnykh nauk, osno­van­naya na ikh istorii [The Phi­los­o­phy of Induc­tive Sci­ences, Found­ed upon Their His­to­ry]. Moscow: Knorus, 2016. 500 pp. (In Russ­ian)
  12. Whewell, W. Cont i pos­i­tivism [Comte and Pos­i­tivism], Epistemolo-gy&Philosophy of Sci­ence, 2017, vol .54, no. 4, pp. 209–224. DOI: 10.5840/eps201754484. (In Russ­ian)

Comments are closed.