Henry Edger (22 January 1820,

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– April 1888,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

positivist active in the nineteenth century. He was one of

Auguste Comte Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte (; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense ...

's ten disciples. After studying Law in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Edger married Millicent Hobson. Although originally a

protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

, he abandoned Christianity in favour of

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

. He moved with his family to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1851. Over the next three years two things caught his interest,

Positivism Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. G ...

and the

Socialist Community of Modern Times Modern Times was a Utopian community existing from 1851 to 1864 in what is now Brentwood, New York, United States. Founded by Josiah Warren and Stephen Pearl Andrews , the community based its structure on Warren’s ideas of individual sovereignty ...

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...

intentional community An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious ...

based on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. sta ...

. On 9 April 1854 he decided to commit his life to the propagation of the "positivist faith" consecrating his life to "laying the foundation stone" to the Comtean edifice in the New World. Although originally attracted to the

Fourierist Fourierism () is the systematic set of economic, political, and social beliefs first espoused by French intellectual Charles Fourier (1772–1837). Based upon a belief in the inevitability of communal associations of people who worked and lived to ...

community in

Red Bank, New Jersey Red Bank is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. Incorporated in 1908, the community is on the Navesink River, the area's original transportation route to the ocean and other ports. Red Bank is in the New York Metropolitan ...

, he stayed there for only a few months. He eventually moved to Modern Times in 1854 for the purposes of spreading positivism. He built an oratory with a steeple attached to his log cabin, and conducted the Comtean religious rites. He further organised a glee club and an orchestra. However aside from his friends John Metcalf and Charles Codman, his efforts to spread positivism had little impact outside his family. He also started a long series of correspondence with Comte which continued until the latter's death in 1857. Although his attempts to spread positivism amongst the inhabitants of Modern Times met with little success, and indeed encountered the hostility of its founder

Josiah Warren Josiah Warren (; 1798–1874) was an American utopian socialist, American individualist anarchist, individualist philosopher, polymath, social reformer, inventor, musician, printer and author. He is regarded by anarchist historians like Jam ...

, it nevertheless provided a base from which Edger could promote Positivism further afield. With his convert, John Metcalf, he provided a range of Positivist reading material available by mail including ''Modern Times, the Labor question, and the Family'' which he written himself. In 1880 Edger left Modern Times and moved to Paris, where he died in 1888.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edger, Henry Comtism Fourierists Positivists 1820 births 1888 deaths