Some Religious Aspects of Positivism

Excerpt from Some Religious Aspects of Positivism: A Paper Read Before the Oxford University Church Society, on Jan. 26, 1880 I ought to apologise for venturing to read a paper to you on the subject of Positivism, as I must confess at starting that I have read none of Comte's own works. My excuse can only be (1) that I have had several opportunities lately of hearing or reading some of the chief utterances of English Positivists, so that I may hope not to misrepresent them (2) that your President pressed me to read a paper on some subject; and (3) that I had found on several occasions in talking with undergraduates lately that the subject was one about which they were interested and anxious. I hope, then, that I may not be doing wrong in trying to initiate a discussion on the subject to-night. I will try to put before you shortly a statement of what Positivism aims at doing in the religious sphere; then to see what are the strong points of it; lastly, what are the points in which it seems specially open to criticism. 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.