Positivism and the Bible

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Excerpt from Positivism and the Bible: Three Lectures Given in Newton Hall There are many reasons why Positivists should study the Bible. It is placed in our library amongst that class of books to which Auguste Comte has given the title of Synthesis, by which lie means, books which we do not read merely for the sake of special knowledge, as is the case with the two divisions of Science and History, nor even for the exceeding delight which they give us, as we read the great poets, who carry us to a world of imagined and ideal excellence, but books which lead us to look on human life as a whole. In an earlier edition of the Catalogue, Comte entitles this class of books, Philosophy, Ethics, Religion. They may be called books of Construction, of Building-up, of Edification. In this collection the Bible occupies a prominent place. Two important works of Aristotle head this list, then comes the Bible, then the Koran. It includes, amongst other things, three works of St. Augustin, one of Saint Bernard, the imitation of Thomas & Kempis, and three treatises of Bossuet. And, on the other hand, it includes the Novum Organum of Bacon, the Essays of David Hume, and three works of Diderot. Each and all of these books are of a kind to occupy us usefully in this place. But there is another, and, for the moment, a more important reason for my choice of the present subject. The Bible holds in the Western world, and especially among English-speaking communities, a very special place. Amidst the infinite divergences of Christian sects in England and America, the respect for the Bible is the one link that preserves a certain unity. Half a mile from where we stand is a very large building, in which thousands of Bibles are printed yearly in every language under the sun, and sent to every part of the globe. We may smile at this enthusiasm, and think it ill-directed. Nevertheless, our business as Positivists is to recognise facts, to look them frankly in the face, and to see what they mean. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.