London Positivist Society

Positivist Protest against the Afghan War 1878

The London Positivist Society was an atheistic philosophical, humanist, and political circle that met in London, England, between May 1867 and 1974. The conditions of membership originally included "emancipation from theology and metaphysics and the acceptance of Comte's views on science and society".[1] The Society's members occupied themselves in applying the ideas of the philosophical school of Comtean positivism to current affairs of the day, including the movement for home rule in Ireland, the Second Boer War (which the Society opposed), the strikes of London trade unionists (which the society defended), Egyptian Independence (which the society supported), the Indian independence movement (which the Society supported) and defence of the Paris Commune.[2][3][4][5] Among their writings was the 1896 pamphlet Positivist Comments on Public Affairs.[6] The Society also supported the founding of the Sociological Society of London.[7] In 1934, it was renamed the English Positivist Committee.

  1. ^ Wright, T. R. (1986). The Religion of Humanity: The Impact of Comtean Positivism on Victorian Britain. Cambridge University Press.
  2. ^ Claeys, Gregory (2010), "Conclusion: the fruits of imperial scepticism", Imperial Sceptics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 282–290, doi:10.1017/cbo9780511762871.005, ISBN 978-0-511-76287-1, retrieved 2021-07-07
  3. ^ Harrison, Royden (1965). Before the Socialists. London: Routledge.
  4. ^ Wilson, Matthew (2018-05-11). Moralising Space. New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. | Series: Routledge research in planning and urban design: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315449128. ISBN 978-1-315-44912-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  5. ^ compiler., Harrison, Royden (1971). The English defence of the Commune, 1871. Merlin Press. ISBN 0-85036-141-9. OCLC 423592.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Beesly, Edward Spencer (c. 1896). Positivist comments on public affairs : occasional papers. W. Reeves. OCLC 976603186.
  7. ^ Society., Sociological (July 1905). Sociological papers. Macmillan & Co., Limited. OCLC 1016222397.