Richard Congreve

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Richard Congreve (born September 4, 1818 in Leamington Hastings , Warwickshire , † July 5, 1899 in Hampstead ) was an English historian and philosopher. He was a follower of Auguste Comte and his philosophy and one of the leading figures in the religious interpretation of Comtist positivism .

life and career

Congreve was a student of Thomas Arnold at Rugby School and held first-class offices at Wadham College , Oxford . He later became a Fellow of Oxbridge , was principal of the Rugby School, but returned to Oxford as a private lecturer. His students included John Henry Bridges (1832-1906), Edward Spencer Beesly (1831-1915), Frederic Harrison (1831-1923). Soon after the February Revolution in France in 1848 , he traveled to Paris, where he met Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire and Auguste Comte.

He was so drawn to positivism that he gave up his fellowship in 1855 and devoted the rest of his life to spreading the philosophy. Congreve founded the London Positivist Society in 1867 and the Church of Humanity in 1878 . He became one of the leading figures in the movement.

In 1878 he succeeded Auguste Comte by Pierre Laffitte (1823-1903), which led to a split in the positivist movement in Great Britain. Frederic Harrison , Dr. J. H Bridges and Professor Edward Spencer's Beesly founded a second Positivist Society at Newton Hall, County Durham .

Congreve translated several of Comte's works into English. He also wrote political tracts and published an extensive volume of essays in 1874 defending Comte's ideas that it was Britain's duty to give up her foreign possessions.

Richard Congreve died in Hampstead on July 5, 1899.

Fonts

  • 1855 - Roman Empire of the West -, John W. Parker & Son, West Strand, London 1855, excerpt
  • 1858 - Catechism of the Positive Religion , (translation from French by Auguste Comtes Catéchisme positiviste )
  • 1862 - Elizabeth of England -, Trübner & Co., London 1862, excerpt
  • 1874 - Essays, Political, Social and Religious , Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-1-154-42827-8
  • 1902 - Historical Lectures

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Denis G. Paz - Nineteenth-century English Religious Traditions: Retrospect and Prospect

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Congreve, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English historian and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1818
PLACE OF BIRTH Leamington Hastings , Warwickshire
DATE OF DEATH July 5, 1899
Place of death Hampstead