Issn 0017-0615 the Gissing Newsletter
ISSN 0017-0615 THE GISSING NEWSLETTER “More than most men am I dependent on sympathy to bring out the best that is in me.” – George Gissing’s Commonplace Book. ********************************** Volume XX, Number 2 April, 1984 ********************************** -- 1 -- George Gissing: Positivist in the Dawn T. R. Wright University of Newcastle upon Tyne The Positivism which fascinated Gissing in his early years in London and which found expression in his first novel, Workers in the Dawn, was that inaugurated by the French philosopher, Auguste Comte. Initially conceived as a synthesis of scientific knowledge and emphasising the need for empirical verification, it developed into the Religion of Humanity, which encouraged a sense of belonging to the race, the only real object worthy of worship, in its historical past, its present needs and its future progress. Individuals could contribute to the moral development of the race, Comte thought, by cultivating their altruistic instincts and *************************************************** Editorial Board Pierre Coustillas, Editor, University of Lille Shigeru Koike, Tokyo Metropolitan University Jacob Korg, University of Washington, Seattle Editorial correspondence should be sent to the Editor: 10, rue Gay-Lussac, 59110-La Madeleine, France, and all other correspondence to C. C. KOHLER, 12, Horsham Road, Dorking, Surrey, RH4 2JL, England. Subscriptions Private Subscribers: £3.00 per annum Libraries: £5.00 per annum *************************************************** -- 2 -- allowing their egoistic instincts to wither from neglect. The philosophical side of Positivism had achieved a certain status in Victorian Britain through the advocacy of such respected thinkers as John Stuart Mill and George Henry Lewes and a certain notoriety through a number of violent controversies in the periodical press.
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