Auguste Comte

In the Collins Dictionary Of Sociology (2006) Auguste Comte can be credited as

the one who created the term ‘sociology’. Comte was also seen as the main figure that

spearheaded the positivism movement of thought (Ritzer 2011, 105). According to

Collins (2006), the term ‘positivism’ is defined as “knowledge which describes and

explains the coexistence and succession of observable phenomena, including both

physical and social phenomena”. This essay seeks to explain and analyze Comte’s man

ideas.

Comte was influenced by the French revolutionist Claude Henri Saint-Simon,

who stressed “a doctrine based on observation – over non-rational religion.” (Dillon

2010, p 18). Comte follows this idea, relegating religion to a smaller and smaller role as

society evolves in his “Law of Three Stages”, replacing it with scientific reasoning. This

vision of sociology was that of a wholly positivist science which would become the

premier science of humanity (Ritzer 2011, 106; Dillon 2010, 19).

This vision was refined into Comte’s basic methods for sociology: observation,

experimentation, comparison and historical research. The kinds of observations that

Comte postulated were directed by theories, which, in turn, would then be connected to

laws (Ritzer 2011, 107). He made this distinction as he felt as though if observations

were made independent of theories and laws, those observing would not know what to

focus on and that the significance of any findings would be ambiguous. Historical

research was the most important method to Comte; in Auguste Comte and Positivism,

author John Mills refers to this as the “necessity of historical studies as the foundation of

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sociological speculation.” (1961). Comte himself, however, used his own speculations

based on his theories about human nature to create laws, and not from his observation or

research (Ritzer 2011, 107). This can be seen as a weakness of his work, as his ideas

would lack objectivity and were seen as unscientific and lacking originality.

Comte created the “Law of Three Stages” to express his ideas about humanity,

and specifically, how over time, civilization would change towards a more reasonable,

scientific mindset. These stages are all centred on the search for meaning and purpose,

and how humanity attributes the features of the world to different causes and Comte also

thought that every human progressed through the stages personally during their

development. (Ritzer 2011, 107-108).

First, the Theological Stage can be considered the “child” phase, where humans

direct their focus to a theological meaning of life; this takes the form of religion, and over

time, it settles to attribute all things to a monotheistic god (108). In this vein, one could

say the ancient Romans’ polytheistic would inevitably have to give way to the more

refined monotheistic idea of Christianity for progress to occur.

The next, or “adolescent” stage is called the Metaphysical Stage, and is

considered by Comte to be of least importance; this stage is a mid-line between the

Theological Stage and the Positivist Stage, a transition in which persons go from a

theistic standpoint towards focusing on abstract forces (Ritzer 2011, 108). For instance,

person whose society is in this stage may then attribute a powerful earthquake to ‘nature’,

rather than a god. As in the Theological stage, the final point of the Metaphysical Stage is

reached when one ultimate force is considered to be the explanation for everything (108).

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The final, “adult” stage is the Positivist Stage, where mankind gives up the futile

and self-centered search for its purpose and relegates all means of understanding to

science. Focus is placed on empirical research and the creation of theories and laws,

rather than supernatural beings (Ritzer 2011, 108). In this stage, for example, persons

would no longer attribute natural disasters as an act of a god, or as an act of some all-

powerful force like nature; instead, understanding would come from the sciences, in this

case the science of meteorology. This scheme of thought also becomes useful because as

society comes into the Positivist Stage, ideas that are not falsifiable or testable are put

into doubt.

Comte also put emphasis on social statistics and social dynamics in sociology; the

latter of which he considered to be more important to sociology. He also claimed “laws of

the ways in which parts of the social system interact (social statistics) are not derived

from empirical study” (Ritzer, 2011, 112). Instead, Comte would use his own ideas about

human nature, rather than empirical research. This is a major weakness of his work, as

said by Ritzer “His idea of doing empirical research was to offer gross generalities about

historical stages and the evolution of the world.” (125)

One of his ideas of human nature and the main threat to Comte’s ultimate

positivist society, would have been the tendency of humans towards self-serving or

“egoistic” thoughts and actions (Ritzer, 2011, p 113). He claims that the individual must

be guided and controlled by institutions like the family and the government to use

altruistic motives, rather than selfish ones. To Comte, humans are helpless to get away

from their selfish nature otherwise (Ritzer 2011, p 113-114).

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Though Comte had views on the nature of the individual, he did not see them as

being the constituent units of society; the family was the macroscopic social unit that he

thought was the basis of a wider society (Ritzer 2011, p 115). To him, the family

provided the necessary education needed to shift persons away from their selfish nature.

The next important institution was one of language, as it allowed persons to

communicate. Comte’s view of the family unit is another weakness of his work, as he

says that the family is analogous to the cells of organisms; in contemporary times, this

line of thought is considered to be outdated and organicist (126). He also saw religion as

playing a prime role in society to promote this necessary altruism; though he thought that

mankind needed to move away from theology, he mandated that religion had a place of

great importance in society (115). Comte created the idea of a ‘positivist religion’, which

had many similarities to Catholicism as it contained a very similar clergy (127).

In keeping with his idea that people needed direction and ‘control’ to circumvent

their egoistical nature, Comte believed that the government should provide this control

for the people by force, with religion in place to keep the government moral (Ritzer,

2011, 115); this was later countered by the sociologist Herbert Spencer, who believed

that this idea of “centralized control” would be detrimental to society (131).

Though dated, the philosophy of Auguste Comte can be thought of as one of the

progenitors of sociology. His methods were hardly empirical and his ideas were

considered to be rife with organicism, but he remains an important part of understanding

the evolution of sociological theory by the critiquing his work. Comte provides many

insights into how he thought about the social world, even if he were not entirely accurate

when his work was held up to wider society.

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Works Cited

Jary, Julia ed. "Comte, Auguste". In Collins Dictionary Of Sociology. London: Collins,

2006.

http://ezproxy.sastudents.uwi.tt:2048/login?url=http://search.credoreference.com.

ezproxygateway.sastudents.uwi.tt:2048/content/entry/collinssoc/comte_auguste/0

(accessed September 21, 2014.)

Dillon, Michele. "Introduction." In Introduction to Sociological Theory, 17-20. West

Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

Mills, John. 1961. Auguste Comte and Positivism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan

Press. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?

id=uc1.32106000049582;view=1up;seq=5.

Ritzer, George. "Auguste Comte." In Classical Social Theory, 105-127. 6th ed. New

York: McGraw Hill, 2011.

Ritzer, George. "Herbert Spencer." In Classical Social Theory, 128-149. 6th ed. New

York: McGraw Hill, 2011.

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