Auguste Comte is considered the “father” of Sociology and the founder of positivist theory. He was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century and a strong ally of scientific work and method in his time. His works provide a basis for understanding the complex European society of the 19th century, and the tools offered by Comtian thought are still useful today.
Also read: Positivism:what it is, origin and characteristics
Who was Auguste Comte?
On January 19, 1798 , in the city of Montpellier, in France , is born Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte, better known as Auguste Comte . Coming from a monarchist and Catholic family, Comte rejected the values of the Ancient Regime and Catholic doctrine from an early age. From his work, the philosopher was recognized for having created the word Sociology, by pointing to the development of a science capable of dissecting the laws of formation of societies and by founding positivism as a method of critical analysis of history, science and society.
The philosopher studied at the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier and the Polytechnic School of Paris, being expelled from this in 1817 for leading a student riot within the institution. After his expulsion, the future philosopher writes for newspapers until he meets the Count of Saint Simon . Simon was an important figure in the intellectual formation of Comte, who worked as secretary for his friend until 1824.
The French count, who, despite his noble title, was a convinced socialist (at that time there was still no socialist theory of Marx and Engels , called scientific socialism, with only what we know today as utopian socialism), introduced Comte into his Parisian intellectual circle and influenced him with ideas about history and society.
Simon believed that there was a constant march of social progress that would make society always evolve, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. This idea, together with the idea that morality should serve for progress, marked the philosophy of Auguste Comte, even after the breakup between friends due to intellectual differences.
From 1822 onwards, Comte began to formulate the beginnings of his positivist theory, publishing the Plan of work necessary for the reorganization of society . In 1828 and 1829, the philosopher taught the Course in Positive Philosophy , which resulted in the writing of a homonymous work divided into six volumes and written between 1830 and 1842.
In his Plan of work necessary for the reorganization of society , the philosopher already speaks of the need for a science that, like the natural sciences, would study the organization of society, naming it Social Physics. In Positive Philosophy Course , the author coined the title Sociology to name the aforementioned science of society.
In 1847, Comte founded the Religion of Humanity or Positive Religion , a doctrine that was based on the idea that science should organize every aspect of social life. His intention was to replace traditional religions with a new doctrine that would lead society to full advance scientific , technological , morals and social .
In this period, there was also an expansion of Comtian ideas beyond Europe, and later, in 1888 , they arrived in Brazil through thepositivist military and republicans linked to Marechal Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca .
In 1857 , Comte dies in Paris, aged 59.
Also read: Proclamation of the Republic in Brazil
Sociology and Auguste Comte
The word Sociology emerged from the works of Comte. He spoke, since his first published work, of the need to develop a science capable of understanding society in order to improve it. According to Auguste Comte, the great bourgeois revolutions of the 18th century (French Revolution and Industrial Revolution ) have brought significant advances to society in political and scientific terms.
However, after the revolutions, Europe saw crises left by political chaos resulting from the French Revolution and by the increased misery caused by the sudden population explosion of the great English cities. Comte's idea was to analyze the situation in which European societies found themselves and propose solutions to the problems faced.
Comte creates the term Social Physics to speak of a science that, like the natural sciences, discover the natural laws , would discover the social laws . Through observation, the social physicist would be able to develop a positive work of observation and experimentation that would allow him to decode society and then create proposals for intervention in it. Later, this science came to be called Sociology, but it still did not have its own precise method.
The Industrial Revolution caused severe changes in European social organization and in the configuration of urban spaces.
Positivism
Positivism, as a well-developed theory, arises from the work of Auguste Comte in his Positive Philosophy Course . The positive work in humanity could already be perceived through the development that society had achieved, for the empirical work of scientific observation was, in itself, positive work.
To explain positivism, the thinker formulates the Three-State Law , which affirms the existence of three different degrees of human development, as described below:
-
Theological Status: Human beings have always needed to seek explanations for the phenomena that surround them. In the beginning, when humanity still did not have enough knowledge to formulate theories supported by reason, it sought answers hastily through mythological theories, which bet on the supernatural to explain natural phenomena.
-
Metaphysical state: From the moment the human being begins to question mythology through philosophical work, he enters the metaphysical state of development. The fanciful explanations provided by religion are no longer accepted without question, and humanity seeks rational explanations based on philosophical speculation.
-
Positive state :In this state of development, humanity begins to seek support in the sciences, through observation methods and empirical tests, to base its knowledge. This is the greatest possible development for humanity and it reflects, according to Comte, its social advance.
Also read: The birth of modern science
Influences
In addition to Saint Simon, Comte was influenced by natural scientists such as Galileo and Newton . Science, especially Biology , was also a source of inspiration for the Frenchman, who saw the science that studies life as the most advanced study possible for a positivist society.
Émile Durkheim criticized Comte's thought and developed a more precise method for sociological studies to be established, being strongly influenced by Comte and Sociology.
Positivism and dialectical historical materialism, by Karl Marx , are two methods of intellectual work that form the basis for the understanding of the intelligentsia developed in the 19th century and of much of the philosophical, sociological and historical thought of the 20th century.
Positive Philosophy Course
Positive Philosophy Course is the title of the most important work of Auguste Comte's career. The six volumes of the work were written between 1830 and 1842 and resulted, initially, from notes of a free course of Philosophy that the thinker taught between 1828 and 1829.
It is in this work that the first establishments of Sociology as a Social Physics and as a science proper to society are located. In it are also located the first bets on positivism as accelerator of human progress and in thesocial order as a factor that would lead to full development.
Sentences
-
"Love as a principle and Order as a basis; Progress as an end."
-
"All good intellects have repeated, since the time of Bacon, that there can be no real knowledge but that based on observable facts."
-
"Living for others is not only the law of duty, but also the law of happiness."
-
"Knowing to predict in order to be able."
* Image credit:Lefteris Papaulakis / Shutterstock