From the Blurb: "When, in 1830, Auguste Comte proclaimed the creation of the social sciences and gave the name 'sociology' to his basic science of human behavior, he optimistically looked forward to the day when application of scientific knowledge to social problems would cure the social ills that plagued mankind." In tracing the development of modern sociology and anthropology, Gloria Levitas shows that history has not proceeded according to Comte's plans, that the situation has become far more complex than Comte could have foreseen. Many of the problems which plagued Comte's world are still with us and we have managed to invent a few of our own. The triumphs of the natural sciences have increased social difficulties, while the very progress of the social sciences has accelerated the pace of social change and made the social future less predictable. Culture and consciousness traces the development of the social sciences from the time of Comte and explains the major themes and issues which have arisen in sociology and anthropology during the past 150 years. It is a work of tremendous scope. Beginning with the attempts to base the social sciences on the methodologies of the other sciences, it progresses toward the assertion of the uniqueness of this field and the search for an approach which would be appropriate to the social and cultural phenomena. In the concluding section, a group of writings by leading social scientists and anthropologists introduce the reader to the various positions and issues which are currently under discussion in the contemporary social sciences.