Order And Progress

Reprint of the original, first published in 1875.

Auguste Comte's doctrine of positivism was both a philosophy of science and a political philosophy designed to organize a new, secular, stable society based on positive or scientific, ideas, rather than the theological dogmas and metaphysical speculations associated with the ancien regime. This volume offers the most comprehensive English-language overview of Auguste Comte's philosophy, the relation of his work to the sciences of his day, and the extensive, continuing impact of his thinking on philosophy and especially secular political movements in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Contributors consider Comte’s reasons for establishing a Religion of Humanity as well as his views on domestic life and the arts in his positivist utopia. The volume further details Comte's attempt to apply his "positive method," first to social science and then to politics and morality, thereby defending the continuity of his career while also critically examining the limits of his approach.

"Collectively, the chapters offer sobering insight into why Brazil has not been the rising economic star of the BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India and China] that many predicted it would be, but also documents the gains that Brazil has made toward greater equality and stability ... The authors analyze core issues in Brazil's evolving political economy, including falling inequality, the new middle class, equalizing federalism, the politicization of the federal bureaucracy, resurgent state capitalism, labor market discrimination, survival of political dynasties, the expansion of suffrage, oil and the resource curse, exchange rates and capital controls, protest movements, and the frayed social contract."--Provided by publisher.

Competition in Order and Progress examines the competition in statemaking between criminal enterprises (gangs, militias, and criminal armed groups) and the state. The title builds from Brazil’s motto Ordem e Progresso to capture the dynamics of state transition in Brazil’s favelas, prisons, and beyond.

Frederic Harrison believed that the state was an industrial complex which required the services of its citizens, rather than a social ideal that guaranteed individual rights. This work is an attempt to combine the impulses of the political left and right into a coherent and cooperative state.