Re: [Marxism] What is wrong with positivism?

["Mark Lause" <MLause@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes Auguste Comte's debt as more to
Saint-Simon.
http://www.comnet.ca/~pballan/positivism(Abbagnano,1967).htm

However, the sense I have from studying the American setting is that Comte's
positivists grew within the broader Fourierist movement.  Charles Fourier
believed that natural relations knit communities, societies, and
civilizations together and that market forces broke those relationships.
Fourier's concept of this "passional attraction" in society seems a
popularized version of the earlier broad interest in Anton Mesmer's "animal
magnetism" and Comte's "positivism" represents another version of this.

The struggle for socialism in Fourier's thought, involved a striving to
reestablish those natural relations against those imposed on us.  In Comte's
striving for social understanding--and the social engineering of a just,
moral society--involve similar projects.

Does that elaborate the connection enough?

Solidarity!
Mark L.









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