Brains and Numbers : : Elitism, Comtism, and Democracy in Mid-Victorian England / / Christopher Kent.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Kent, Christopher ,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]; ©1978
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (226 p.)
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Acknowledgments --; Contents --; Preface --; PART ONE: ACADEMIC RADICALS: 1840-68 --; 1. Elitism, the Clerisy, and University Reform at Oxford --; 2. Seeking the Nation: 1848-67 --; 3. The Alliance of Brains and Numbers --; PART TWO: COMTE IN AN ENGLISH SETTING --; 4. From Oxford to Comte --; 5. The Search for the Proletariat --; 6. Rhetoric and Respectability --; PART THREE: POLITICS AND THE INTELLECTUAL: JOHN MORLEY AND FREDERIC HARRISON --; 7. The Vocation of the Intellectual --; 8. The Retreat into Politics: John Morley --; 9. The Retreat from Politics: Frederic Harrison --; Epilogue: Innocence and Experience --; Notes --; Bibliography --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9781487589196; 9783110490947
• DOI: 10.3138/9781487589196
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Christopher Kent.

A group of Oxford graduates, influenced by Arnold and later by Comte, formed the core of a generation of academic radicals who attempted to define the role of an educated élite in an emerging industrial mass democracy. This perceptive study of the English academic scene traces the emergence of Comtism in the university community and examines its expression in the ideas of Frederic Harrison and John Morley. The social and political dimensions of Comte's ideology in England are commonly considered to have been obscured by the tendency to regard it as a sort of eccentric religious sect. This study demonstrates the subtlety with which Harrison applied positivist ideas to mid-Victorian politics and the generally underestimated influence of Comte in Morley's political thought. Both men looked to the frank éliticism of Comte in Morley's political thought – in both thought and action – the political claims of 'brains and numbers.' It was, as the book shows, an attempt singularly appropriate to the requirements of an educated middle class. Set within the context of mid-Victorian academic radicalism, the appeal of Comtism becomes more clear. This book brings together a complex of philosophical, political, and religious ideas. It reflects the Victorian intellectual's perspective on the process and problems of social change.