Exposition "Comte: la vie rue Monsieur-le-Prince" à la Maison d'Auguste Comte

An exhibition focused on the everyday life of Auguste Comte in his apartment on rue Monsieur-le-Prince (Paris 6th), spanning his rituals of life and work and his varied social connections.

Exhibition “Comte: la vie rue Monsieur-le-Prince” at the Maison d’Auguste Comte. Auguste Comte lived his whole life in Paris from his arrival in 1814 at the École polytechnique.

He occupied thirteen lodgings in the capital, but only one will remain forever linked to his name: his apartment at 10, rue Monsieur-le-Prince.

Comte’s permanent settlement in this student quarter, near the Sorbonne and the École polytechnique, seems entirely logical, given that his vocation was above all teaching.

It was the home of a man with few possessions who nonetheless wished to continue his intellectual and religious practice in a familiar setting.

Comte always insisted on living on a material subsistence limited to food, clothing, the wages of his servant, Sophie Bliaux, and his rent.

He adopted an ascetic way of life in order to devote his energy to the elaboration of his work, and he always observed exemplary regularity in everything he did: the use of his days and hours was precisely fixed, and he often declared that he followed a strict “mental hygiene”.

Although a few outings to the theatre, a few walks, and a few dinners at restaurants occasionally broke the monotony of his monastic lifestyle, Comte remained for the most part in his apartment, which was first and foremost his workplace.

But at the moment when Comte met the great love of his life, Clotilde de Vaux, and above all after her tragic death, this space took on an entirely different dimension, becoming the “saint domicile” or “sacred apartment” in which Comte’s major philosophical developments would unfold.

In the salon, the sacraments of his brand-new “religion of Humanity” were administered, and the Positivist Society, founded in 1848, met in the study… This exhibition invites you to immerse yourself in the intimacy and daily life of Auguste Comte.