Richard Congreve
Richard Congreve (* September 4, 1818; † July 5, 1899 in Hampstead ) was an English historian and philosopher. He was a follower of Auguste Comte and his philosophy and one of the leading figures in the religious interpretation of the comtistischen positivism.
Life and career
Congreve was a student of Thomas Arnold at Rugby School and held class offices at Wadham College, Oxford. He later became a Fellow of Oxbridge, was Rector of Rugby School, but returned as a lecturer back to Oxford. His students have included John Henry Bridges (1832-1906), Edward Spencer Beesly (1831-1915), Frederic Harrison ( 1831-1923 ). Soon after the February Revolution of 1848 in France, he traveled to Paris, where he met Jules Barthélemy- Saint- Hilaire and Auguste Comte.
He felt so very attracted to the positivism that he gave up his Fellowship in 1855 and to devote the rest of his life to spreading this philosophy. Congreve founded in 1867 the London Positivist Society and in 1878 the Church of Humanity. He was one of the leaders of the movement.
In 1878 he succeeded Auguste Comte by Pierre Laffitte ( 1823-1903 ), which led to a split in the positivist movement in Britain. Frederic Harrison, Dr. J. H Bridges and Professor Edward Spencer Beesly founded a second Positivist Society in Newton Hall ( County Durham ).
Congreve translated several of Comte's works into English. He also wrote political tracts and published in 1874 a comprehensive volume of essays in which he thus defended Comte's idea that it was the duty of Great Britain to abandon its foreign possessions.
Richard Congreve died on 5 July 1899 in Hampstead.