A General View of Positivism / Or, Summary exposition of the System of Thought and Life

A systematic exposition of positivism sets out a comprehensive program that reorganizes knowledge and civic life around empirically grounded sciences, a hierarchical classification of disciplines, and a moral creed centered on duty and the worship of Humanity. It traces intellectual development, offers a secular scheme of social and political reform, and prescribes changes in education, industry, the family, and public ritual. The text also considers the roles of art, poetry, women and the working classes within a unified social ethic, combining philosophical principles with concrete institutional and ceremonial proposals.