All philosophers want to understand the world. But some are not content until they change it, to the point of wanting to change the course of human history. Auguste Comte ranks among those who are the creators of the great philosophical systems, the vast explanations of thought and behavior that were meant to encompass not a part of human reality, but all of it, as the starting points of a new and final order... A critical evaluation of Comte's ideas, his relation to other philosophers of the time and the legitimacy of his risky enterprise are all dealt with in this book.