"Although Auguste Comte is conventionally acknowledged as one of the founders of sociology and as a key representative of positivism, few new editions of his writings have been published in the English language in this century. He has become virtually dissociated from the history of modern positivism and the most recent debates about it. Gertrud Lenzer maintains that the work of Comte is, for better or for worse, essential to an understanding of the modern period of positivism.

Three significant additions have been made to this edition: a new introduction by the editor, a new postscript - taken from the twelfth Auguste Comte Memorial Trust Lecture - also by the editor, as well as Comte's "Conclusion of the Whole Work of the System of Positive Polity" taken from the fourth volume of his seminal work."--BOOK JACKET.