Algumas notas sobre o positivismo religioso e social

Abstract

In this paper the author deals with some relevant aspects of positivism, in its religious and socio-political double-edged character. Drawing mainly from French, Brazilian and Portuguese sources, it aims to prove that the positivist message didn’t have a single meaning. Emphasizing theological dislocations within the positivist system, the Author states that positivism served both democratic and anti-democratic, secular and mystic, conservative and progressive political stratagies. He acknowledges in the end that the claim to cientificity of the positivist discourse didn’t resist the manipulation of the different streams and schools that emerged following Comte’s death.