La concepción positivista de los Grandes Libros Frederic Harrison y la recepción victoriana de la Bibliothèque de Auguste Comte

Àngel Pascual Martín

doi:10.5209/ritie.89176

The positivist conception of Great Books Frederic Harrison and the Victorian reception of Auguste Comte's Bibliothèque

Àngel Pascual Martín Universitat de Barcelona (España) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9685-8348

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5209/ritie.89176

Keywords: Great Books, Positivism, Culture, Liberal education, Victorian England

Abstract

This article examines the positivist origins of the Great Books tradition. Often overlooked alongside figures like Matthew Arnold or Sir John Lubbock, it asserts here a crucial milestone in the emergence of this tradition: the work of Frederic Harrison (1831-1923) and, particularly, his reception of Auguste Comte's Bibliothèque du Prolétaire au segle XIX. In the first part, based on the French author's works and their adoption by one of the foremost exponents of positivism in England, the article thoroughly explores the role of literary selection within positivist doctrine and its regular use among the working classes. The second part analyzes the dialogue that Harrison would have engaged in with Arnold and Lubbock, specifically examining the influence of these exchanges on Culture and Anarchy, the defense of culture and its implications for political engagement, as well as on the compilation of the Best Hundred Books and the resulting selection of essential reading material.

View citations

References

ACTC (2023). Organizing Statement, 1995. The Association for Core Texts and Courses. https://www.coretexts.org/organization/mission?v=f24485ae434a

Adler, M. J. (1940). How to read a book. The art of getting a liberal education. Simon & Schuster.

Adler, M. J. (1977). Philosopher at Large. An Intellectual Autobiography. Macmillan.

Alcoriza, J. y Lastra, A. (2010). Introducción. En M. Arnold, Cultura y Anarquía (pp. 7-36). Cátedra.

Arnold, M. (1869). Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism. Smith Elder.

Arnold, M. (2010). Cultura y Anarquía. Edición y traducción de J. Alcoriza y A. Lastra. Cátedra.

Arbousse-Bastide, P. (1957). La doctrine de l'éducation universelle dans la philosophie d'Auguste Comte, principe d'unité systématique et fondement de l'organisation spirituelle du Monde. 2 vols. PUF.

AAVV (1886). The Best Hundred Books: Containing an Article on the Choice of Books by Mr John Ruskin, a Hitherto Unpublished Letter by Thomas Carlyle and others. Pall Mall Gazzete «Extra», nº 24. Pall Mall Gazette Office.

Carlyle, T. (1866). On the Choice of Books. The Inaugural Address of Thomas Carlyle, Lord Rector of the University of Edimburgh. John Camden.

Carnochan, W. B. (1993). The Battleground for the Curriculum: Liberal Education and American Experience. Stanford University Press.

Carnochan, W. B. (1999) Where Did Great Books Come from Anyway? The Book Collector 48(3), 352–371.

Chaddock-Reynolds, K. (2002). A Canon of Democratic Intent: Reinterpreting the Roots of the Great Books Movement. History of Higher Education Annual, 22, 5-32.

Columbia University (1924). Outlines of readings in important books. Columbia University Press.

Comte, A. (1844). Discours sur l’esprit positif. Thunot.

Comte, A. (1851). Système de politique positive; ou, Traité de sociologie, instituant la religion de l'humanité. Tome Premier. Carilian-Goeury et Vor Dalmont.

Comte, A. (1852a). Catéchisme positiviste, ou, Sommaire exposition de la religion universelle: en onze entretiens systématiques entre une femme et un Prêtre de l'humanité. Carilian-Goeury et Vor Dalmont.

Comte, A. (1852b). Calendrier positiviste ou Système général de commémoration publique. Carilian-Goeury et Vor Dalmont.

Comte, A. (1854). Système de politique positive; ou, Traité de sociologie, instituant la religion de l'humanité. Tome Quatrième et Dernier. Carilian-Goeury et Vor Dalmont.

Comte, A. (1877). A System of a Positivist Polity, or Treatise on Sociology, Instituting the Religion of Humanity. Fourth Volume. Longman’s, Green.

Comte, A. (1981). À Jacquemin (2 julliet 1848). A P. E. de Berredo Carneiro et P. Arnaud (ed.) Auguste Comte. Correspondance générale et confessions. Tome IV: 1846-1848 (pp. 165-169). La Haye, Mouton.

Comte, A. (1982). Programme sommaire du cours philosophique sur l’histoire générale de l’Humanité professé gratuitement, en vingt-neuf dimanches, au Palais-Cardinal, avec une entière gratuité, pendant chacune des trois années 1849, 1850 et 1851. En Carneiro, P. & Arbousse-Bastide, P. (ed.) Auguste Comte. Correspondance générale et confessions. Tome 5 1849–1850 (pp. 483-485). De Gruyter Mouton.

Courtney, J. E. (1923). Frederic Harrison: 1831-1923. The North American Review, 217(809), 510-520.

Dupin, F. (2020). La “Bibliothèque du prolétaire au xixe siècle”: une encyclopédie positiviste?. En V. Bourdeau, J.-L. Chappey et J. Vincent (dir.) Les encyclopédismes en france à l'ère des révolutions (1789-1850) (pp. 187-198). Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté.

Erskine, J. (1948). My Life as a Teacher. Lippincott.

Haarlow, W. N. (2003). Great Books, Honors programs, and Hidden Origins: the Virginia Plan and the University of Virginia in the Liberal Arts Movement. Routledge Falmer.

Harrison, A. (1926). Frederic Harrison. Thoughts and Memories. Heinemann.

Harrison, F. (1867a). Our Venetian Constitution. Fortnightly Review 7(3), March, 262-283

Harrison, F. (1867b). Culture: A Dialogue. Fortnightly Review, 8(11), november, 603-614.

Harrison, F. (1875). Parliament before reform (1867). En Order and Progress (pp. 127-161). Longmans.

Harrison, F. (1886a). Preface. En The Choice of Books and Other Literary Pieces (pp. v-vii). Macmillan.

Harrison, F. (1886b). The Choice of Books (Partly from Fortnightly Review, April 1879). En The Choice of Books and Other Literary Pieces (pp. 1-93). Macmillan.

Harrison, F. (1886c). The Positive Library of Auguste Comte. Reeves and Turner.

Harrison, F. (1896). Introduction. En A. Comte, The Positivist Philosophy. In Three Volumes. Truly translated and condensed by H. Mantineau (pp. v-xix). George Bell & Sons.

Harrison, F. (1907). The Creed of a Layman. Apologia Pro Fide Mea. Macmillan.

Harrison, F. (1912). Among my books. Macmillan.

Hutchins, R. M. (1936). The Higher Learning in America. Yale University Press.

Hutchins, R. M. (1952). The Great Conversation. Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Hutchins, R. M. (1953). The Conflict in Education in a Democratic Society. Harper & Brothers.

Hutchinson, H. G. (1914). Life Of Sir John Lubbock Lord Avebury. In two volumes. Macmillan.

Jiménez Abad, A. (1999). La “filosofía positiva” de Augusto Comte como doctrina de la educación. En F. J. Laspalas, Historia y teoría de la educación: estudios en honor del profesor Emilio Redondo García (pp. 221-246). EUNSA.

Jolibert, B. (2004). Aguste Comte – L’éducation positive. L’Harmattan.

Lacy, T. (2008). Dreams of a Democratic Culture: Revising the Origins of the Great Books Idea, 1869-1921. The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 7(4), 397-441.

Lacy, T. (2013). The Dream of a Democratic Culture: Mortimer Adler and the Great Books Idea. Palgrave Macmillan.

Lastra, A. (2009). La ineficacia de Matthew Arnold. Alfinge, 21, 99-108.

Lebreure, D. (2018). La bibliothèque populaire positiviste de la rue Réaumur. A Bibliothèques populares. Histoire des bibliothèques et de la lecture populaires. https://bai.hypotheses.org/2414

Lee, J. S. (2020). Invention. The Art of Liberal Arts. Respondeo Books.

Lubbock, J. (1886). On the pleasure of reading. The Contemporary Review, XLIX, January-June, 240-251.

Lubbock, J. (1890). The Pleasures of Life. Part I. Macmillan.

Lubbock, J. (1895). Classified list of Sir John Lubbock's one hundred best books. Routledge.

Marvin, F. S. (1924). Frederic Harrison. Isis, 6, 387-390.

Maurice, F. D. (1866). The Working Men’s College. The Working Men’s College.

Montas, R. (2021). Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation. Princeton University Press.

Muglioni, J. (1996). Augusto Comte (1798-1857). Perspectivas: revista trimestral de educación comparada, XXVI(1), 225-237.

Negri, A. (1966). Augusto Comte e l’«educazione universale». I Problemi della Pedagogia, 12, 193-262.

Petit, A. (2018). De la Bibliothèque du prolétaire au XIXe siècle à la Bibliothèque positiviste. En Bibliothèques populares. Histoire des bibliothèques et de la lecture populaires. https://bai.hypotheses.org/1929.

Pickering, M. (2009). Auguste Comte. An Intellectual Biography, Volume III. Cambridge University Press.

Robinet, J. F. E. (1860). Notice sur l'oeuvre et la vie d'Auguste Comte. Sociétè Positiviste.

St. John’s College (1938). Catalogue for 1937-1938. Announcements for 1938-1939. Official Statement of the St. John’s Program. St. John’s College.

Sartori, É. (2021). Positivisme et religion de l’Humanité en Angleterre. Commentaire, 176, 821-828. https://doi.org/10.3917/comm.176.0821

Torralba, J. M. (2022). Una educación liberal. Elogio de los grandes libros. Encuentro.

Vogeler, M. S. (1962). Matthew Arnold and Fredric Harrison: The Prophet of Culture and the Prophet of Positivism. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 4, 441-462.

Vogeler, M. S. (1968). The Victorians and the Hundred Best. The Texas Quarterly, XI, Spring, 184-198.

Vogeler, M. S. (1979). Frederic Harrison. The positivist as urbanist. En J. P. Hulin y P. Coustillas (eds.) Victorian writers and the city (pp. 94-114). Publications de l’Université de Lille III.

Wilson, M. (2017). Labour, utopia and modern design theory: the positivist sociology of Frederic Harrison. Intellectual History Review, 29(2), 313-335, 10.1080/17496977.2017.1379287

Wilson, M. (2021). Richard Congreve, Positivist Politics, the Victorian Press, and the British Empire. Palgrave Macmillan.

Article download

PDF (Español (España))

Crossmark

Metrics

Published

2024-04-09

How to Cite

Pascual Martín À. (2024). The positivist conception of Great Books Frederic Harrison and the Victorian reception of Auguste Comte’s Bibliothèque. Revista Internacional de Teoría e Investigación Educativa, 2, e89176. https://doi.org/10.5209/ritie.89176

ACM
ACS
APA
ABNT
Chicago
Harvard
IEEE
MLA
Turabian
Vancouver

Download Citation

Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS)
BibTeX

Issue

Vol. 2 (2024)

Section

Articles

The positivist conception of Great Books Frederic Harrison and the Victorian reception of Auguste Comte's Bibliothèque

Abstract

Article download

Crossmark

Metrics

Language

Information

Cope

Web Feed Plugin

Make a Submission