In the early nineteenth century, a Parisian called Saint-Simon brought together some ideas and came up with a humanist creed on which he wanted to base a church. A place where people would come to worship in a secular togetherness. The main belief of the Positivists was that humanity was on a one way path to enlightenment, and that advances in techology would be mirrored in advances in social wellbeing and also in the death of god. As he grew old, a fucknut student of his called Comte took the ideas on and through the mid 19th century set up some churches. They didn't stop at Paris, some still exist in Brasil. They opened in London and one was built in Liverpool in 1913 (The Temple of Humanity) - but that didn't last long. One of the congregation, some 20 year old dick, got jealous that the object of his affections was more interested in a recently married dude called Gaze. He killed them both and himself a few weeks before the church was about to open (they were all Postivists), so the press wasn't good and some other god based faith took over the building soon after - but it's still there. Gaze's surviving wife moved to Brasil, so maybe she remained in the 'faith'.
Anyways, the ideas of Positivism ended up proving highly influential to a lot of thinkers around at the time. Because of its godless technology basis, it appealed to Marx, and he took many elements of it into his writings which formed the basis of all the leftist stuff that went on at the turn of the twentieth century. The secular scientific side of it also appealed to the facists - some Positivists claimed to have used scientific techniques to prove the superiority of different races at different stuff, and some dude came up with an index of negroidism or something, which proved that Irish people were actually 90% black. The nazis loved this, and in Italy right up until the 1960s, some criminals were still gauged by facial type to determine what type of sentence would suit them best.
The Postivist outlook was also taken on board by the Austrian School of Economics. Whereas beforehand economies had been measured in human terms as well as production, Positivism argued that everything had mathematical models, even human pursuits such as economics, and thus cold hard stats could be used to prove that free market were the only way forward, towards this singular enlightened future. The irony here is that pre Christian Europe viewed history as a series of cycling comedies and tragedies, and so the view that we're all on a path to salvation is based very much in a religious message. The secular religions of the twentieth century, Communism and Nazism, both have their basis in Positivism, and yet caused the greatest carnage known yet on the planet. Even Dawkins and the rest of the evangelical atheists seem to assume that we are headed towards enlightenment, a Christian notion. While the Postivists were right for a time on the progress of a more genteel society, one where slavery and poverty was being outlawed and eradicated, its products on the left and right soon saw both back on a massive scale.
The Positivists thought that progress in science would lead to progress in social conditions, and this was leapt on by a lot of influential thinkers. While the message was one of positivity and faith in humanity, the results have been conflict, war and devastation.
TL; DR - Nice ideas are shit. Keep them to yourself.
Anyways, the ideas of Positivism ended up proving highly influential to a lot of thinkers around at the time. Because of its godless technology basis, it appealed to Marx, and he took many elements of it into his writings which formed the basis of all the leftist stuff that went on at the turn of the twentieth century. The secular scientific side of it also appealed to the facists - some Positivists claimed to have used scientific techniques to prove the superiority of different races at different stuff, and some dude came up with an index of negroidism or something, which proved that Irish people were actually 90% black. The nazis loved this, and in Italy right up until the 1960s, some criminals were still gauged by facial type to determine what type of sentence would suit them best.
The Postivist outlook was also taken on board by the Austrian School of Economics. Whereas beforehand economies had been measured in human terms as well as production, Positivism argued that everything had mathematical models, even human pursuits such as economics, and thus cold hard stats could be used to prove that free market were the only way forward, towards this singular enlightened future. The irony here is that pre Christian Europe viewed history as a series of cycling comedies and tragedies, and so the view that we're all on a path to salvation is based very much in a religious message. The secular religions of the twentieth century, Communism and Nazism, both have their basis in Positivism, and yet caused the greatest carnage known yet on the planet. Even Dawkins and the rest of the evangelical atheists seem to assume that we are headed towards enlightenment, a Christian notion. While the Postivists were right for a time on the progress of a more genteel society, one where slavery and poverty was being outlawed and eradicated, its products on the left and right soon saw both back on a massive scale.
The Positivists thought that progress in science would lead to progress in social conditions, and this was leapt on by a lot of influential thinkers. While the message was one of positivity and faith in humanity, the results have been conflict, war and devastation.
TL; DR - Nice ideas are shit. Keep them to yourself.
