HARRISON, FREDERIC

born Oct. 18, 1831, London died Jan. 14, 1923, Bath, Somerset, Eng. English author who publicized the Positivism of the French sociologist Auguste Comte in Great Britain. Like Richard Congreve, the first important English Positivist, Harrison accepted Positivism not only as a secular philosophy but also as the basis of a religion, which the two embodied in the Church of Humanity, founded in London. A practicing lawyer from 1858, Harrison was a member of royal commissions on trade unions and law digests. He was the author of Positivism: Its Position, Aims and Ideals (1901); The Positive Evolution of Religion (1913); and The Philosophy of Common Sense (1907).