‘Nature’, ‘law’, ‘humanity’ — the rise of Positivism, with reference to Quesnay, Turgot and Comte
| dc.contributor.author | Venter, Ponti | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2017-09-07T10:23:40Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2017-09-07T10:23:40Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2002 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Englsih: The positivist expansion of the metaphorical conception of (natural) law over all aspects of human life (ending in technicism) dialectically denies the supposedly autonomous rational control of humankind (modernity, Kant, Marx). The two meanings of natural law — the moral and the physical — were unified by the physiocrat Quesnay in a single formula stressing both the advantage of humankind and humanity’s dependence upon the subhuman environment. Another physiocrat, Turgot, understood human history in terms of inevitable laws of progress, and stressed the fundamental role of natural necessity in human social formations. Auguste Comte, attempting, like Quesnay, to unify the moral and the physical, completed the natural science approach to human life, which forced him to find a natural divinity in Humanity in order to give meaning to human life, but the course towards naturalism had already been set | en_ZA |
| dc.description.abstract | Afrikaans: Die positiwistiese uitbreiding van die metaforiese konsepsie van ’n (natuur)wet wat alle aspekte van die menslike lewe beheers, ontken dialekties die veronderstelde outonome rasionele beheersing van die natuur deur die mens (moderniteit, Kant, Marx). Die twee natuurwetopvattings — naamlik as ’n morele en as ’n fisiese wet — is deur die fisiokraat Quesnay tot een formule verenig, waarin sowel die voordeel van ons mensheid as ons afhanklikheid van die benede-menslike omgewing beklemtoon is. ’n Ander fisiokraat, Turgot, het die menslike geskiedenis verklaar in terme van die onvermydelike wette van vooruitgang, en het die fundamentele rol van natuurnoodwendigheid in menslike samelewingsvorming beklemtoon. Auguste Comte het soos Quesnay gepoog om die morele met die fisiese dimensie te verenig, en so die natuurwetenskaplike benadering tot die menslike lewe afgerond, waardeur hy gedwing is om, ter wille van singewing aan die menslike lewe, ’n natuurlike godheid, die Mensheid, te poneer. Die beweging na naturalisme was egter teen hierdie tyd reeds gevestig. | af |
| dc.description.version | Publisher's version | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.citation | Venter, P.(2002). ‘Nature’, ‘law’, ‘humanity’ — the rise of Positivism, with reference to Quesnay, Turgot and Comte. Acta Academica, 34(1), 1-55. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.issn | 0587-2405 (print) | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 2415-0479 (online) | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11660/6832 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.rights.holder | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Natural law | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Humankind | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Positivism | en_ZA |
| dc.title | ‘Nature’, ‘law’, ‘humanity’ — the rise of Positivism, with reference to Quesnay, Turgot and Comte | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Article | en_ZA |