Auguste Comte

Question 1

In general, what was Auguste Comte to do with?

Answer 1

Evolutionism and Science

Question 2

What is Comte’s Overview?

Answer 2

o Greatly advanced the field of social science
o First coined the term ‘sociology’ to describe the study of social behaviour
o Coined ‘altruism’
o Made sociology a science
o Founded positivism
o Broke sociology into 2 categories – Social Statics and Social Dynamics

Question 3

When did Auguste Comte coin the term “sociology”?

Answer 3

1838

Although in only in this context, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyés introduced it in 1780

Question 4

Who originally coined the term “sociology”, and when?

Answer 4

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyés introduced it in 1780

Question 5

What is meant by “Altruism” ?

Answer 5

Altruism: disinterested and selfless concern for others’ well-being

Question 6

What is meant by ‘Social Statics’ ?

Answer 6

Social Statics – The forces holding society together

Question 7

What is meant by ‘Social Dynamics’ ?

Answer 7

Social Dynamics – The forces driving social change

Question 8

Comte’s main work/ contribution to positivist philosophy falls in 5 parts. What are they?

Answer 8

1) His rigorous adoption of the scientific method
2) Law of 3 stages
3) Classification of the sciences
4) His conception of the incomplete philosophy of each of these sciences anterior to sociology
5) His synthesis of a positivist social philosophy in a unified form

Question 9

What was Comte’s life like?

Answer 9

• 1798-1857 (post French Revolution)
• Comte’s father (Louis) and mother (Rosalie) were both monarchists and devout Roman Catholics.
• 1817: secretary to CHSS
• 1824: ‘catastrophic’ spat with CHSS over authorship – ‘I owed nothing to his personage’
• 1826: was hospitalised, had a breakdown
o 1827: Attempts suicide
• 1838: embarks on a program of ‘cerebral hygiene’ – a mind detox where he doesn’t read for a while
• 1857: Comte dies of cancer, at the age of 59.

Question 10

What was Comte’s lifespan?

Answer 10

1798-1857 (post French Revolution)

Question 11

What was Comte’s lovelife like?

Answer 11

• Comte was in an unhappy marriage with Caroline Massin, and they separated after 17 years (1825-1842)
• In 1845 Comte had a profound romantic and emotional experience with Clotilde de Vaux. Because she wasn’t divorced from her philandering husband, her relationship with Comte remained platonic, thought the two were deeply in love. She died the following year of tuberculosis. She helped inspire the ‘Religion of Humanity’

Question 12

What was Comte’s character like?

Answer 12

• Frail, short stature, nervous, but bonkers
• Quite antisocial, quite nervous
• Lecturer somewhat compared his personality & troubled character to Trump
• “Comte was a rather sombre, ungrateful, self-centred, and egocentric personality, but he compensated for this by his zeal for the welfare of humanity”

Question 13

What was Comte’s Intelligence like?

Answer 13

• Very good memory, good intelligence
• ‘Comte’s prodigious memory is famous. Endowed with a photographic memory he could recite backwards the words of any page he had read but once. His powers of concentration were such that he could sketch out an entire book without putting pen to paper. His lectures were all delivered without notes. … he wrote everything from memory’ (Schweber).

Question 14

What was Comte’s early work ?

Answer 14

• Looked more at social dynamics
• Discusses how the European system should be harmonious where everyone appreciates everyone’s contribution – utopian
• Believed in this rise in significance of science & laboratory methods
• Religion & metaphysics displaced by positivism
• Stages of progressions are steady & inevitable
• Believed that the industry should be a united harmonious workshop

Question 15

What was Comte’s later work?

Answer 15

• Looked more at social statics
• Disaffection with the inevitability of progression
• Recognises that the extent of how original things found important are baseless
• Abandons of evolution & positivistic method
• Has a conservative reaction in 1789
• In science, there’s very little scope in looking at aesthetics

Question 16

What did Comte believe sociology to be, and why?

Answer 16

• He believes sociology to be a science; in fact the ultimate, most important science

• Looks at positivism; looking at theories, observations and their relationships
o ‘If it is true that every theory must be based upon observed facts, it is equally true that facts cannot be observed without the guidance of some theories. Without such guidance, our facts would be desultory and fruitless…’

• Society, like nature, operates under its own set of laws, and should be studied in the same way we study nature; with science

Question 17

What is Comte’s ‘Classification of Sciences’?

Answer 17

The Classification of Sciences

o Based upon the hypothesis that the sciences had developed from the understanding of simple and abstract principles to the understanding of complex and concrete phenomena.

o Ordered disciplines, dealing with degrees of complexity. Sociology would integrate the less complex sciences

o (in order) Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and finally Sociology

o Simpler sciences as a precondition for integrative sociology

Question 18

Why did Comte, in his early work, view the social as Dynamic?
What was the Paradox of studying sociology?

Answer 18

• Saw the social as dynamic – something ‘forever proceeding before our eyes in which we are a part’
• “Modern science and technology and the Industrial Revolution had begun transforming the societies of Europe in directions no one yet understood”

The paradoxical problem of being outside of the social in order to study it

Question 19

In his early thinking, what did Comte say was the object of political science?

Answer 19

The proper object of political science… is a general determination of society’s future

Question 20

In which work did Auguste Comte come up with The Law of Three Stages, and when?

Answer 20

‘The Course in Positive Philosophy’

A series of texts written between 1830 and 1842. The works were translated into English by Harriet Martineau and condensed to form The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte (1853).

Question 21

What are the names of the 3 stages in ‘The Law of Three Stages’, in order?

Answer 21

1. Theological Stage
2. Metaphysical Stage
3. Positive Stage

Question 22

When was the Theological Stage?

Answer 22

< 1300 AD

Question 23

What is the Theological Stage also known as?

Answer 23

Fictitious Stage

Question 24

How did Comte describe the Theological Stage?

Answer 24

All theoretical conceptions bear a supernatural impress. There is a lack of logical & orderly thinking

Implies belief in supernatural power

Found more among the primitive races

Theology means discourse in religion. Religion dominated in this state of development.

This stage is dominated by priests, and ruled by military men (“Priests were endowed with intellectual and spiritual power, while military exercised temporal authority.)

Broken down into 3 stages

Question 25

The Theological Stage is broken down into three stages. What are they, in order?

Answer 25

1. Fetishism
2. Polytheism
3. Monotheism

Question 26

What is Fetishism? Why did it shift to the next stage?

Answer 26

Believes that supernatural power dwells in inanimate object.

Too many fetishes created confusion for people. Hence they started believing in many Gods (Polytheism)

Question 27

What is Polytheism? Why did it shift to the next stage?

Answer 27

Belief in many Gods

The presence of too many Gods also created mental contradiction for them. So they develop the idea of one God (Monotheism)

Question 28

What is Monotheism? Why was it successful?

Answer 28

Belief in one single God.

The climax of the theological stage of thinking. It symbolises victory of human intellect & reason over non-intellectual & irrational thinking.

Question 29

When was the Metaphysical Stage?

Answer 29

1300 - 1800 AD

Question 30

What is the Metaphysical Stage also known as?

Answer 30

Abstract Stage

Question 31

What is the Metaphysical Stage?

Answer 31

Mongrel and transitional; almost an extension of theological thinking

Stage was characterised by Defence. Here mind pre-supposes abstract forces.

Rationalism started growing instead of imagination. Rationalism: states that God does not stand directly behind every phenomenon. Metaphysical thinking discards belief in a concrete God.

Supernatural being is replaced by supernatural force

Abstract power/force guides & determines the events in the world

Law, lawyers & chairmen dominated the society. Law remained under control of the state

Question 32

When was the Positive Stage?

Answer 32

1800 AD >

Question 33

What is the Positive Stage also known as?

Answer 33

Scientific Stage

Question 34

What is the Positive Stage?

Answer 34

Represents the scientific stage of thinking

Positive/scientific knowledge is based upon facts gathered by observation & experience

The concept of God is completely vanished from human mind, which now tries to establish cause & effect relationship. Mind is in search of a final & ultimate cause

Scientific thinking is thoroughly rational, and there’s no place for belief or superstition
This stage is governed by industrial administration and scientific moral guides

It’s dominated by the entrepreneurs, technologists, etc.

This is the ultimate shape in a series of succession transformation. The new system is built upon the destruction of the old; with evolution, come progress and emancipation of human mind

Question 35

Who dominated the Theological Stage?

Answer 35

This stage is dominated by priests, and ruled by military men

“Priests were endowed with intellectual and spiritual power, while military exercised temporal authority.”

Question 36

Who dominated the Metaphysical Stage?

Answer 36

Law, lawyers & chairmen dominated the society. Law remained under control of the state

Question 37

Who dominated the Positive Stage?

Answer 37

It’s dominated by the entrepreneurs, technologists, etc.

Question 38

What was the Theorising Crisis (Comte)?

Answer 38

• People seem to be more selfish & self-interested; morals seem to change
• Looks at division of labour
o Specialisation results in ‘a more limited point of view… animated by increasingly special interests…’
o Comte was interested in the impact of specialisation on cohesiveness

• Hollowing-out of society perverses power: ‘… there remains no other expedient [for governments] than force or corruption’

Question 39

What is Solidarism (Comte)?

Answer 39

• The social theory of the solidarity interests
o Solidarity: unity/agreement of feeling or action (esp. among those with a common interest); mutual support within a group

• Early – science can cure a problem of its own making
• Later – science is decentred as basis for cohesion
o need for common myths, cultural aesthetics, quasi-religious values – foster universal community, belonging, emotion, elementary social bonds. New spiritual authorities

• There is a need for new institutional forms
• Abandons the 3 stage law

Question 40

What did Comte mean by Kinship?

Answer 40

• Blood relationship; A sharing of characteristics or origins

• Family is seen as a primal elemental unit of association
o “the natural laws of all human association should be explained first regarding the most basic form”

• “It is only in these… intimate relations that labour first makes us appreciate sufficiently the obligation and satisfaction of living for others… “

Question 41

What was Comte’s ‘Religion of Humanity’ inspired by?

Answer 41

• Clotilde de Vaux died in 1844. He was devastated so he makes her centre of the religion

Question 42

What was Comte’s weird view on Women, and Women in The Religion of Humanity?

Answer 42

• However, he has weird views on women
o Originally felt sympathy for Wollstonecraft, but then couldn’t bring it to himself to see women as able to be intelligent & do work and whatnot

• Sanctifying the feminine – women should be ‘released from the necessity to work outside the home… [and] elevated to the status of angels’!!!
• The new positive religion will eventually eliminate the need for sex – we’ll be able to do reproduction without sex because of science. But no sex??

Question 43

What is the novelty of Comte?

Answer 43

A unifying sociological theory of solidarism
A novel synthesis
Rejecting the traditionalists - The division of labour as solidarity
Rejecting the liberals - motives are not economic - DoL fulfills
Rejecting the notion that industrial society will be based on egoism
The need to collaboratively associate in production over-rides egoism

Question 44

What is Comte’s ‘Religion of Humanity’?

Answer 44

• He tries to provide a new religion that did what religion & faith used to do, but how secularism rises, religion isn’t as much anymore

It was a religious order based on reason and humanity, emphasizing morality as the cornerstone of human political organization.