BLAINVILLE'S FUNERAL--A WORLD-CHANGING
EVENT
By Erica Carle
September 9, 2002
NewsWithViews.com
Henri-Marie Ducrotay
De Blainville was found dead in a railway carriage while traveling
between Rouen and Caen. He was 72 years old. Although his name is
little known today, in the early 19th Century he was recognized as
one of the great and influential contributors to the science of biology.
He was an anatomical artist, a professor of comparative anatomy, an
MD, and a tireless researcher. Although you may never have heard of
Blainville, his funeral was an historic event of unparalleled significance.
Your life today is still impacted by repercussions following this
funeral which took place May 7, 1850.
Among the funeral speakers
was the French mathematician/philosopher Auguste Comte, the father
of sociology, the religion of humanity, and the positive philosophy.
Comte used the occasion of Blainville�s funeral to acknowledge his
achievements, but more importantly to warn young scientists of the
future not to make the same mistakes he claimed Blainville had made.
According to Comte, Blainville�s scientific contributions ought not
be fully honored by posterity because his religious and philosophical
beliefs were politically incorrect. This failing, Comte declared,
should serve to deprive the scientist of the historical recognition
which he might otherwise deserve.
What were the failures
so contemptible that they should deprive a scientist of recognition
for his achievements? Blainville was unwilling to give up Christianity
in favor of Comte�s religion of humanity. He did not fully support
the positive philosophy, and he did not relate his comparative anatomy
to Comte�s concept of the sociological evolution of humanity. Comte
said:
". . . great minds should
share largely in the general movement of Humanity. It is principally
with the view of inculcating this salutary lesson upon the young that
I have thought it right to take part in this funeral solemnity. .
. He who did more than any one to systematise the scale of animal
life, ended by placing it under the fatal patronage of theology. .
. . It will be seen that Blainville�s intellectual degeneracy was
largely due to the defects of his moral organisation. . . Such a nature
could not accept a revolution of which the principal purpose was to
subordinate all personal feeling to social interests. This, too, is
what prevented his frank adoption of the positive philosophy: attracted
to it intellectually, he rejected its moral and political applications."
Comte was not opposed
to philosophical or religious domination over science. He was only
opposed to domination by religions and philosophies other than his
own. He wanted young scientists to know that future deviance from
the concept of sociological evolution, and refusal to acknowledge
sociological control would not be tolerated. Scientists would have
to acknowledge Comte�s philosophical beliefs, especially that belief
which insisted that the mind should be dominated by the heart.
"The systematic action
of the heart upon the mind is one of the most precious fruits of Positivism;
and Blainville studied Positivism too slightly and too late to utilise
it thus. His repugnance to the Revolution did not therefore save him
from the principal symptom of the revolutionary state, the insurrection
of the mind against the heart, from which the whole Western population
has increasingly suffered since the close of the Middle Ages. . .
Such was the way in which one of the strongest intellects that ever
existed was impaired solely by moral feebleness. Isolated from the
generous movements of his century, Blainville failed to attain an
historical position at all corresponding to his intrinsic worth. With
the one exception of the incomparable Bichat, he was in reality equal,
if not superior, to any of the great founders of Biology. And yet
he will not be placed at their level."
From 1850 to the present
day followers of Comte�s sociology, religion of humanity, and positive
philosophy have declared the existence of a new morality--one which
scientists could ignore only at their own peril.
"Such, Gentlemen, is
the moral teaching to be drawn on this sad occasion from a most opportune
and signal example. The temples of Humanity will naturally be surrounded
by the tombs of the good and great: for the true Great-Being consists
essentially of the dead worthy to survive. No place then could be
better suited for the religious teaching of positive morality, from
which we learn how best to harmonise each individual life with the
eternal evolution of mankind.
To make my principal
intention more distinct, I may add that the failure of Blainville�s
career was more prejudicial to his own fame than to the general progress
of Biology. The condition of thought in his time was not such as to
make a final synthesis of vital studies possible. This great task,
which is now left to the younger biologists who may be worthy of it,
can only be performed under the direct impulse of Sociology, the sole
permanent source of encyclopedic construction. . ."
Comte insisted that
scientific speculation, investigation, and recognition be limited
to those who shared and were willing to abide by his philosophy and
religion:
"Universal science and
final religion have now begun to exist. These are the objects on which
future thinkers must expend their efforts, if they would save themselves
from failure more complete and less excusable than that of Blainville.
. . The Scale of Life, Blainville�s principal field, is threatened
now with utter subversion at the hands of investigators who are incapable
of understanding its value. It can be saved only from above, by the
universal discipline emanating from true Social Science, which will
reserve all speculative study for encyclopaedic thinkers. Such men
will be always ready, alike on moral and intellectual grounds, to
give full generality to their special conceptions. Blainville�s organic
although retrograde instinct had given him a confused sense of the
necessity of connecting Biology with the general beliefs of man: the
mistake was in the system which he chose. Science in the Middle Ages
was essentially subject to the religion of God. Reason and morality
now call for its far completer subjection to the religion of Humanity."
By the time of Blainville�s
funeral Auguste Comte had already acquired a following among philosophers,
scientists, and even Christian priests and ministers. The Positivist
Society had been formed, and one of the projects it carried out was
to publish and distribute Comte�s funeral address in memory Henri-Marie
Ducrotay De Blainville. The Positivist society already had branches
in Madrid, Aberdeen, Genoa, and Brussels. Comte had a number of influential
followers in the United States. Contributions to Comte�s support from
a group of English scientists and philosophers, though modest, had
helped him complete his works.
In the United States
by the end of the nineteenth century sociology, financed by American
millionaires, had achieved academic acceptance at many colleges. By
1930 it was offered in most high schools. Today both high school and
grade school children experience social studies rather than history,
geography, and civics. A religion--the sociological religion of humanity--is
being taught openly in the public schools, and the citizenry is barely
aware of it.
Many scientists when
they speak of the compatibility of science and religion mean the religion
of humanity rather than God. They know God is regarded as politically
incorrect. They have been indoctrinated in the beliefs, and dedicated
to the objectives of the religion of humanity.
Comte�s Positive philosophy,
sociology, and religion of humanity, and the theory of evolution--whether
biological or social--are interdependent. To deny any part of this
construction and its plan for the management of human life on earth
is to threaten all parts. Small wonder, then, that those who are dedicated
to the advancement of the New World Order panic and become nearly
hysterical when doubt is cast on any part of the theory of evolution.
NOTE: All Comte quotes
are taken from his speech at Blainville�s funeral which was included
in the appendix to the first volume of his System of Positive Polity
published in France in 185l. The funeral speech was then published
and distributed by the Positive Society.
� 2002 Erica Carle -
All Rights Reserved
