Unit 1. Biograghies

Warm up

Exercise 1. Match the English words on the left with their Russian equivalents on the right. Learn the words by heart.

1. to enter	a) основатель;
2. sincere	b) опыт;
3. to earn	c) жениться, выходить замуж;
4. a founder	d) хмурый, угрюмый;
5. experience	e) неблагодарный, неприятный;
6. to suffer	f) посвящать;
7. sombre	g) ссориться;
8. ungrateful	h) зарабатывать;
9. to devote	i) искренний;
10. to quarrel	j) поступать.

READING

Exercise 2. Read and translate the following text. Use the dictionary when necessary.

Auguste Comte

Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857), better known as Auguste Comte was a French philosopher, a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism.

Comte’s father, Louis Comte, a tax official, and his mother, Rosalie Boyer, were strongly royalist and deeply sincere Roman Catholics. Comte was intellectually precocious and in 1814 entered the Ecole Polytechnique. Comte soon took up permanent residence in Paris, earning a living there by the occasional teaching of mathematics and by journalism. He read widely in philosophy and history. The thoughts of several important French political philosophers of the 18^th century – such as Montesquieu, the Marquis de Condorcet, A.-R.-J. Turgot, and Joseph de Maistre – were critically worked into his own system of thought. Comte’s most important acquaintance in Paris was Henri de Saint-Simon, a French social reformer and one of the founders of socialism, who was the first to clearly see the importance of economic organization in modern society. Comte’s ideas were very similar to Saint-Simon’s, and some of his earliest articles appeared in Saint-Simon’s publications.

In 1826 Comte began a series of lectures on his “system of positive philosophy” for a private audience, but he soon suffered a serious nervous breakdown. He made an almost complete recovery from his symptoms the following year, and in 1828-29 he again took up his projected lecture series. The following 12 years were devoted to his publication (in six volumes) of his philosophy in a work entitled Course of Positive Philosophy.

From 1832 to 1842 Comte was a tutor and then an examiner at the revived Ecole Polytechnique. In the latter year he quarreled with the directors of the school and lost his post, along with much of his income. During the remainder of his life he was supported in part by English admirers such as John Stuart Mill and by French disciples, especially the philologist and lexicographer Maximilien Littré. Comte married Caroline Massin in 1825, but the marriage was unhappy and they separated in 1842. In 1845 Comte had a profound romantic and emotional experience with Clotilde de Vaux, who died the following year of tuberculosis. Comte idealized this sentimental episode, which exerted a considerable influence on his later thought and writings, particularly with regard to the role of women in the positivist society he planned to establish.

Comte devoted the years after the death of Clotilde de Vaux to composing his other major work, System of Positive Polity, in which he completed his formulation of sociology. Many English intellectuals were influenced by him, and they translated and promulgated his work. Comte died of cancer in 1857. Comte was a rather sombre, ungrateful, self-centred, and egocentric personality, but he compensated for this by his zeal for the welfare of humanity, his intellectual determination, and his strenuous application to his life’s work. He devoted himself to the promotion and systematization of his ideas and to their application in the cause of the improvement of society.

Exercise 3. Decide whether the following statements are true or false.

1. In 1826 Comte began a series of lectures on his “system of positive philosophy” for a broad audience.

2. Clotilde de Vaux died of measles.

3. From 1832 to 1842 Comte was a tutor and then an examiner at the revived Ecole Polytechnique.

4. The thoughts of several important German political philosophers were critically worked into Comte’s system of thought.

5. Twelve years were devoted to Comte’s publication of his philosophy in a work entitled Course of Positive Philosophy.

Exercise 4. Answer the following questions.

1. What institution did Comte enter?

2. Where did Comte live?

3. How did he earn a living?

4. Who was Henri de Saint-Simon?

5. When did Comte begin a series of lectures on his “system of positive philosophy”?

6. Who supported Comte during the remainder of his life?

7. What influenced Comte’s later thought and writings?

8. In what work did Comte complete his formulation of sociology?

9. What negative features of character did Comte have?

10. When did Comte die?

Exercise 5. Match each definition with the correct word. Translate the words into Russian and learn them by heart.

1. to promulgate	a) give (someone) a legal right or a just claim to receive or do something;
2. precocious	b) to form a distinction or boundary between;
3. a residence	c) to regard with esteem, respect, approval or pleased surprise;
4. an acquaintance	d) reaching to or stemming from the depths of one’s nature;
5. to admire	e) worthy of respect;
6. to entitle	f) appointed by authority, esp. for some special duty;
7. to separate	g) knowledge of a person or thing;
8. profound	h) the place in which one resides;
9. considerable	i) ahead in development, such as the mental development of a child;
10. an official	j) to make widespread.

Exercise 6. Now read and translate the text on David Émile Durkheim. Use the dictionary when necessary.