Auguste Comte

Auguste Comte was a French philosopher and the founder of positivism, the view that genuine knowledge comes from the methods of the sciences. A former secretary to Henri de Saint-Simon, he argued that human thought passes from theological to metaphysical to scientific stages, and that the study of society should become a science in its own right, for which he introduced the word 'sociology'. In later life he founded a secular Religion of Humanity with its own calendar, saints and rituals. A General View of Positivism sets out his whole system for general readers.

Key ideas

• Law of three stages: thought in every field moves from theological to metaphysical to positive, scientific explanation.
• The sciences form a hierarchy, from mathematics and astronomy up through biology to sociology.
• Science should seek laws linking observed phenomena, not hidden causes or essences.
• Society needs a new spiritual order; his Religion of Humanity made humanity itself the object of devotion, with the motto 'live for others'.

Major works

• A General View of Positivism (1848)
• Course in Positive Philosophy (1830–1842)
• System of Positive Polity (1851–1854)

In the Book corner

• A General View of Positivism 1848 · Intermediate
  A programmatic book published in Paris in 1848 and later used as the opening discourse of Comte's System of Positive Polity; J.…

In the conversation

No topics yet. Start one about this thinker.