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AUGUSTE COMTE – HIGH PRIEST
OF POSITIVISM
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Submitted by: Asfa Fatima
OCTOBER 3, 2019
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SUBMITTED TO: MS. SANA
Introduction to Sociology

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 AUGUSTE COMTE – HIGH PRIEST OF
POSITIVISM

Auguste Comte [19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857] is the founder of

Positivism and was a French philosopher and writer who formulated the doctrine
of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern
sense of the term. Comte is also seen as the founder of the academic discipline
of sociology. Comte believed that the progress of the human mind had followed an
historical pattern which he described as the law of three stages; theological,
metaphysical and positive. Comte believed that the key to human progress towards
future is
In the first two stages, attempts were made to understand the nature of things
through supernatural and metaphysical explanations. In the positive stage, by
contrast, observation and experiment became the principal means to search for
truth. Applying the law of three stages first to the development of the sciences,
Comte later claimed that it applied to human intellectual development in general
and that it held the key to the future progress of humanity.
Comte poisitivist ideology was to set a new to ruling class who should decide how
society should be run and how people should behave then following old concept of
rationality of individual and wanting to protect people from state inteference. the
idea is from Saint Simons thought but find its articulation in much more developed
authoritarian form in conte. conte parents, rejected scepticism and Republiism that
followed the French Revolution rather they were more into Catholic and
monarchial while going comte was more towards the cause of individual freedom
and republicanism. Young comte of age 14 declared that he belive in God and had
already gone through all the essential stages of the revolutionary spirit. Due to
rejection of both catholism and royalism comte relation with his parents got worse.

At the age of 16 he entered the prestigious Ecole poly technique. Then he got
expelled he filled the gaps of his education by reading various subjects likes
science, and biology and history.

After the expulsion from the Ecole poly technique Comte wrote his first political
essay my thought : humanity, truth and justice, liberty and the fatherland in the
essay Comte explained the problem of French people without giving up of
defending revolution itself. This clearly shows that Comte was aware of the ideas
abroad at that time. Comte explicitly disagreed with this notion arguing that the
government attempt to repress the progress of science could increase the likelihood
o the further tyranny. And censoring criticism would only to enforce the ideas of
those who supported old tyrannical orders. The essay wasn't published but present
Comte political thought at this early stage.

Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that the young Comte turned to
Saint-Simon. The latter, taking advantage of the relative freedom of the press
granted by Louis XVIII, published more and more pamphlets and magazines, and
therefore needed a collaborator. Comte took over three ideas from the complex
thought of Saint-Simon:

1. The contrast between organic and critical periods in history, of which the
Revolution had just provided an example.
2. The idea of industrial society. In 1817, under the influence, notably, of B.
Constant and J.B. Say, Saint-Simon had turned himself into an apostle of industry.
As an attentive observer of the industrial revolution that was going on before his
eyes, he understood that it would completely change all existing social relations.
Heretofore, we had lived in military societies: man acted on man, and power
belonged to the warrior class. Henceforth, trade would replace war, and man would
mainly concern himself with acting on nature. Comte drew the quite mistaken
conclusion that the era of wars was over (Aron 1957).
3. The idea of spiritual power. This is Comte’s most obvious debt to Saint-Simon.
The theme was present from the first work by Saint-Simon (Letters from an
Inhabitant of Geneva to his Contemporaries, 1803) to the last (The New
Christianity, 1825). It resulted from an observation and a conviction. Saint-Simon
observed the role of science in modern society: he suggested, for example, that
public funds be made available to finance scientific research. He was also
convinced of the religious nature of social cohesion and, therefore, of the need for
a priestly class in charge of maintaining it. This belief led him to the idea of a

science of social organization, linking these two components: religion would

become an application of science, permitting enlightened men to govern the
ignorant. So, instead of trying to destroy every form of religious life, one should
entrust to the learned the spiritual power left weakened by the decline of traditional
religions. It is also within this framework that the text he wrote in 1814 on the
reorganization of European society has to be understood: handling international
relations are one of the main attributes of spiritual
By 1824 Saint-Simon and Comte found themselves in opposing philosophical
camps, and the two parted ways. Comte wed Caroline Massin in 1825, but the
marriage was unhappy, characterized from the start by violence and separations.
For several years he lived in penury, attempting suicide on at least one occasion.
Between 1830 and 1842, while still a virtual exile from academia, he wrote his
most important work, the six-volume Cours de Philosophie Positive (Course in
Positive Philosophy), in which he further developed his radical theory. Comte’s
initial insistence was that scientific thinking was much to be preferred over bland
acceptance of imposed or inherited rules. He made the case for sociology itself to
be treated as a scientific discipline, with firm, observable facts and empirical data.
During this fruitful time Comte’s finances remained tentative, though his mental
and emotional state became more stable. But in 1842, his wife finally left him for
good.
In late 1844 Comte found both muse and patron in Clothilde de Vaux, herself
abandoned by her husband. Clothilde insisted that, as she was still officially
married, but she cooperated with him and encouraged him to develop his ideas
further. Though she died of consumption about a year later, Clothilde proved to be
a prime influence on Comte’s evolving philosophy.

When he had written essays with Saint-Simon years earlier, the germinal
idea was that the scientific disciplines had all experienced a similar
history, having moved from knowledge based only on mythology to
knowledge calculated and deduced from real data. Rather callously he
called the first two stages in this three-stage progression theological and
metaphysical (or abstract). The third and final stage, which Comte
believed was only then beginning to dawn, he called positive.
In the theological stage, he maintained, the human mind seeks to
understand the phenomena it observes, and satisfies itself with
supernatural explanations. In the metaphysical stage, the mind accepts
that natural forces are at work, but it conceives of them only in abstract
terms.

As time went on, Comte poured scorn on the first stage, very much in
line with his own declaration of atheism in his teens, and had little more
respect for the second, though he believed that both stages were essential
in what he saw as the evolution of the human mind. He reasoned that
knowledge is useless if it does not go beyond superstition to an
understanding of the laws that govern what we observe and experience.
For example, a child is told not to try to move a heavy object that is
theological knowledge. When the child is older, he or she learns that
there is a natural force that causes some objects to be heavy: that is
metaphysical knowledge. From the facts of this second stage, the child is
eventually able to grasp the concept of gravity, the law behind the
phenomenon in question: this is positive knowledge.
Comte asserted that even the so-called soft sciences, such as sociology,
bear out this pattern of development. Through the eyes of Clothilde he
came to see sociology not only as a hard science but as a tool for
bettering the world. He surmised that social problems could be
engineered away by big, positive policies.
After the death of his beloved Clothilde, however, Comte began acting
in decidedly nonscientific ways. He became inextricably involved with
mysticism and embarked on a self-prescribed course of “cerebral
hygiene,” wherein he would not allow himself to be contaminated by the
inferior ideas expressed by other lecturers and authors.
Comte came to believe that the ultimate goal of humanity was to learn to
worship itself.
In 1849 Comte applied his hand to calendar reform, suggesting a 13-
month year, each day of which was dedicated to someone he considered
a champion of humanity. At around the same time he founded the
Positivist Society, still in existence today. He came to believe that the
ultimate goal of humanity was to learn to worship itself. To that end he
established the universal religion of humanity and declared himself its
high priest.
His positivist theory developed into a program for the future of
humankind: he reasoned that feckless leaders imposing rules had
ensured that the past was strewn with war, but that right thinking, as he
defined it, would ultimately sweep away such conflict. Yet, in spite of
Comte’s devoted efforts, humanity seems no nearer the exalted goal of
perfection.
Even though today most sociologists shudder at Comte’s totalitarian
version of positivism, his influence is still great. Countless social
improvement measures bear testimony to his principle, and many people
inadvertently fall into the trap of thinking that humanity can better itself
morally through willpower alone.