“In a famous passage, Mill explained Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigour and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time. Yet, ironically, Mill himself could not tolerate unconventional men such as Comte, who often referred to himself as an 'eccentric thinker.” CharacterSocietyDangerIronyEccentricEccentricityMillComte Book:Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography, Volume II Source: Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography, Volume II
“Uncannily echoing the criticism that Tocqueville was soon to make of the French in the Ancien Regime and the French Revolution, Comte wrote that social reformers ran into the danger of sacrificing 'true liberty to a chimerical equality.' Like Tocqueville, Comte considered the pursuit of both liberty and equality to be absurd. Both had been useful tools in the battle against the ancien regime but now their 'natural incompatibility' had become more apparent. he wrote, 'For, a free growth develops necessarily all kinds of differences, especially mental and moral ones; as a result, if one wants to maintain the same level, one must always repress evolution.' Indeed, whereas liberty encouraged the emergence of superiority and advanced regeneration, Comte believed subverted sociability and progress. Too much social solidarity would lead to the end of society.” FreedomSocietyEqualitySolidarityComteTocqueville Book:Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography, Volume II Source: Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography, Volume II
“Condorcet's elitist inclinations are evident in his theory that to prevent wasting time and effort, it was necessary to unite scientists under a common direction. This plan seems to make the scientists a very powerful authority fee of all controls. Frank Manuel states that Condorcet's plan was particularly evident in the 1804 edition of the Esquisse. Appended to this edition were extra sections on the scientific organization of society as well as Condorcet's commentary on Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, which concentrated on the need for scientific authority. Manuel asserts that Comte was deeply influenced by this edition. But Comte's library contains the 1797 edition, which was more concerned with the freedom of the individual than with scientific power.” ScienceFreedomAuthorityIndividualismEditionComteCondorcet Book:Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography, Volume I Source: Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography, Volume I