Historians of modern design and sociology have shown little interest in the leaders of the ever resourceful and influential British Positivist Society. One of the aims of this essay is to show that the Positivist polymath Frederic Harrison (1831–1923) cultivated ideas and practices that are compatible with modernists’ aspirations to improve the lives of the masses. It is accordingly shown that Harrison was an ardent supporter of working-class causes and that on this basis he developed sociological survey methods and produced social programmes to initiate the comprehensive reorganisation of cities. Harrison intended to realise a modern utopia called the “Occidental Republic”, created by Auguste Comte, the Positivist Philosopher who – during the 1830 and 1840s – introduced both sociology and the Religion of Humanity. While many studies pore over the Positivists’ “church” rituals, this essay is the first to argue that the Religion of Humanity and sociology were of equal consequence – and that together they formed the basis of their controversial spatial theory and practice, which was considered the means to realise Comte’s utopia. This vision, it is argued, is central to appreciating how Positivism percolated into the “modern movements” of architecture and planning.
...More
Book
Leonardo Ciacci;
(2023)
Patrick Geddes
(/isis/citation/CBB502845517/)
Article
Heathcott, Joseph;
(2013)
Ephemeral City: Design and Civic Meaning at the 1904 World's Fair
(/isis/citation/CBB001201124/)
Chapter
Bourdeau, Michel;
(2004)
Biologie et sociologie chez Auguste Comte
(/isis/citation/CBB000774987/)
Article
Corr, John;
(2014)
The Enlightenment Surfaces in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Scientific Thinking Attempts to Deliver Order and Progress
(/isis/citation/CBB001420241/)
Article
Leonidio, Adalmir.;
(2007)
Utopias sociais e cientificistas no Brasil, no final do século XIX
(/isis/citation/CBB000831539/)
Book
Laura Vaughan;
(2019)
Mapping Society: The Spatial Dimensions of Social Cartography
(/isis/citation/CBB103799936/)
Chapter
Patrizia Papini;
(2005)
Larderello: Il villaggio e la comunita
(/isis/citation/CBB871774950/)
Article
Renwick, Chris;
(2009)
The Practice of Spencerian Science: Patrick Geddes's Biosocial Program, 1876--1889
(/isis/citation/CBB000951304/)
Article
Campbell, Margaret;
(2005)
What Tuberculosis Did for Modernism: The Influence of a Curative Environment on Modernist Design and Architecture
(/isis/citation/CBB000773945/)
Book
James Zarsadiaz;
(2022)
Resisting Change in Suburbia: Asian Immigrants and Frontier Nostalgia in L.A.
(/isis/citation/CBB646453225/)
Book
Roberta Vittoria Grossi;
(2021)
«Contremisce Satana». Storia di un esorcismo nella Francia del XIX secolo
(/isis/citation/CBB256909263/)
Chapter
Wegener, Daan;
(2010)
Ostwald's Utopias: Energeticism and the Wilhelminian Empire (1888--1918)
(/isis/citation/CBB001021562/)
Book
Bingaman, Amy;
Sanders, Lise;
Zorach, Rebecca;
(2002)
Embodied Utopias: Gender, Social Change, and the Modern Metropolis
(/isis/citation/CBB000651067/)
Book
Ivey, Paul Eli;
(2013)
Radiance from Halcyon: A Utopian Experiment in Religion and Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001320944/)
Book
Livio Sansone;
(2022)
La Galassia Lombroso
(/isis/citation/CBB789501643/)
Book
Natalia Priego;
(2016)
Positivism, Science and 'The Scientists' in Porfirian Mexico: The Philosophy of Herbert Spencer in the Historiography of Mexico
(/isis/citation/CBB334978650/)
Book
Victor Margolin;
(2015)
World History of Design
(/isis/citation/CBB459395239/)
Article
Leporiere, Lorenzo;
(2016)
Filippo Bottazzi e le sue indagini sulla ‘medianità’ di Eusapia Palladino.
(/isis/citation/CBB424502076/)
Article
Santos, Fabiane Vinente dos;
(2007)
Sexualidade e civilização nos trópicos: gênero, medicina e moral na imprensa de Manaus (1895--1915)
(/isis/citation/CBB000831574/)
Article
Foschi, Renato;
(2016)
La rappresentazione psico-antropologica dei meridionali tra Ottocento e Novecento
(/isis/citation/CBB415529966/)
Be the first to comment!