"Contributions of Auguste Comte To Sociology": Project On

Auguste Comte and his Sociological Thoughts
Project on
“Contributions of Auguste Comte to

Sociology”
SUBMITTED TO:
Dr. Uttam Kumar Panda
(FACULTY: SOCIOLOGY)
SUBMITTED BY:
SHRUTI SETHI
SEMESTER II-B
ROLL NO. – 136
HIDAYATULLAH NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY
Raipur (C.G)
Submitted on: 10.04.2012
Project Report in Sociology Page 1

Acknowledgments
I feel highly elated to work on the topic “Contributions of Auguste Comte to Sociology.” I
express my deepest regard and gratitude to my teacher, Dr. Uttam Kumar Panda for his unstinted
support.
I would like to thank my family and friends without whose support and encouragement, this
project would not have been a reality.
I take this opportunity to also thank the University and the Vice Chancellor for providing
extensive database resources in the Library and through Internet.
Shruti Sethi
Semester I

Contents
Acknowledgements 2
1. Introduction 4
2. Objectives 5
3. Research Methodology 5
4. August Comte: Biographical Sketch 6

5. Positivism or the Positive Philosophy of Comte 9
6. Law of three stages 12
7. Hierarchy of Sciences 16
8. Comte’s views regarding Sociology and Religion of Humanity 19
9. Major findings 23
10. Conclusion 24
11. Bibliography 25
Introduction

Auguste Comte [1798 – 1857] was the father of Positivism and inventor of the term sociology.
He played a key role in the development of the social sciences and was highly influential on
thoughts about progress in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Auguste Comte grew up in the
wake of the French Revolution. He rejected religion and royalty, focusing instead on the study of
society, which he named "sociology." He broke the subject into two categories: the forces
holding society together ("social statics") and those driving social change ("social dynamics").
Comte's ideas and use of scientific methods greatly advanced the field.
Comte believed that the progress of the human mind had followed an historical sequence which
he described as the law of three stages; theological, metaphysical and positive. 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 represents a general retreat from Enlightenment humanism that has continued to this day.
His positivist ideology, rather than celebrating the rationality of the individual and wanting to
protect people from state interference, fetishised the scientific method, proposing that a new
ruling class of technocrats should decide how society should be run and how people should
behave. This idea has its seeds in Saint-Simon’s thought but finds its expression in a much more
developed authoritarian form in Comte.
Objectives

1. To study the life and works of Auguste Comte,

2. To understand sociology in the words of Auguste Comte,
3. To study Positivism of Auguste Comte and to understand the concepts underlying the theory,
4. To study Comtean Philosophy and religion of humanity,
5. To study how sociology evolved and how it is similar to the evolution of other sciences and
6. To delve into the concept of Law of three stages.
Research Methodology
This project is descriptive and analytical in nature. Secondary and Electronic resources have
been largely used to gather information and data about the topic.
Books and other reference as guided by Faculty of Sociology have been primarily helpful in
giving this project a firm structure. Websites, dictionaries and articles have also been referred.
Chapter 1
AUGUSTE COMTE: BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857), better
known as Auguste Comte, was a French philosopher. He was a founder of the discipline of
sociology and of the doctrine of positivism. He may be regarded as the first philosopher of
science in the modern sense of the term. He is also called the “father of Sociology.1”
Comte was born in Montpellier, Hérault, in southern France on January 19, 1798. After attending
the Lycée Joffre2 and then the University of Montpellier, Comte was admitted to the École
Polytechnique in Paris. The École Polytechnique was notable for its adherence to the French
ideals of republicanism and progress. The École closed in 1816 for reorganization, however,
causing Comte to leave and continue his studies at the medical school at Montpellier. When the
École Polytechnique reopened, he did not request readmission.3
Following his return to Montpellier, Comte soon came to see unbridgeable differences with his
Catholic and Monarchist family and set off again for Paris, earning money by small jobs. In
August 1817 he became a student and secretary to Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-
Simon, who brought Comte into contact with intellectual society and greatly influenced his
thought thereon.4 Strongly influenced by the Utopian socialist Henri Saint-Simon, Comte
developed the positive philosophy in an attempt to remedy the social malaise of the French
revolution, calling for a new social doctrine based on the sciences. 5 Comte was a major influence
to 19th century thought, impacting the work of social thinkers such as Karl Marx, John Stuart
Mill, and George Eliot.6 His concept of sociologie and social evolutionism, though now outdated,
set the tone for early social theorists and anthropologists such as Harriet Martineau and Herbert
Spencer, evolving into Modern academic sociology presented by Émile Durkheim as practical
and objective social research.7 Comte's social theories culminated in the "religion of humanity",
which was influential to the development of religious humanist and Secular Humanist
organizations in the 19th century. Comte likewise coined the word "altruism".8
1
Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 902 (44th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010)
2
http://mediatheque.montpellier-agglo.com/22887393/0/fiche___document/&RH=1219250799417. Retrieved on
5th april 2012 at 4 pm.
3
4
C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 672 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi)
5
Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology, 12 (1st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006)
6
http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture25a.html#course retrieved on 7th april 2012
7
8
Oxford English Dictionary: altruism. 2nd ed. 1989. http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50006618.

It is during that time that Auguste Comte published his first essays in the various publications
headed by Saint-Simon, L'Industrie, Le Politique, and L'Organisateur (Charles Dunoyer and
Charles Comte's Le Censeur Européen), although he would not publish under his own name until
1819's "La séparation générale entre les opinions et les désirs" ("The general separation of
opinions and desires").9 In 1824, Comte left Saint-Simon, again because of unbridgeable
differences. Comte published a Plan de travaux scientifiques nécessaires pour réorganiser la
société (1822) (Plan of scientific studies necessary for the reorganization of society). But he
failed to get an academic post.10 His day-to-day life depended on sponsors and financial help
from friends. Debates rage as to how much Comte appropriated from the work of Saint-Simon.11
Comte married Caroline Massin, but divorced in 1842. In 1826 he was taken to a mental health
hospital, but left without being cured – only stabilized by French alienist Esquirol – so that he
could work again on his plan (he would later attempt suicide in 1827 by jumping off the Pont des
Arts). In the time between this and their divorce, he published the six volumes of his Cours.12
Comte developed a close friendship with John Stuart Mill. From 1844, Comte was involved with
Clotilde de Vaux, a relationship that remained platonic. After her death in 1846 this love became
quasi-religious, and Comte, working closely with Mill (who was refining his own such system)
developed a new "religion of humanity".13 John Kells Ingram, an adherent of Comte, visited him
1855 in Paris.
He published four volumes of Système de politique positive (1851–1854). His final work, the
first volume of "La Synthèse Subjective" ("The Subjective Synthesis"), was published in 1856.14
Major Works of Auguste Comte are15
 Plan des travaux scientifiques necessaires pour reorganiser la society, 1822.
9
10
C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 675(S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi)
11
Pickering, Mary (1993) Auguste Comte: an intellectual biography Cambridge University Press, pp. 192
12
13
14
15
Ibid

 Cours de philosphie positive, 1830-42,
 A General View of Positivism, 1848.
 Systeme de philosophie positive, 1851-54.
 Catechisme positiviste, 1852.
 Appeal to Conservatives, 1855
 Synthese subjective, 1856.
Comte died in Paris on 5 September 1857 from stomach cancer and was buried in the famous
Cimetière du Père Lachaise, surrounded by cenotaphs in memory of his mother, Rosalie
Boyer, and of Caroline de Vaux. His apartment from 1841-1857 is now conserved as the
Maison d'Auguste Comte and is located 10 rue Monsieur-le-Prince, in Paris' 6th
arrondissement.16
Chapter 2
Positivism or the Positive Philosophy of Comte
16

The French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857) formulated a form of empiricism, which he
called Positivism or the Positive Philosophy. As John Stuart Mill explains, Comte believed
“We have no knowledge of anything but Phenomena; and our knowledge of phenomena is
relative, not absolute. We know neither the essence, nor the real mode of production, of any fact,
but only its relations to other facts in the way of succession or of similitude. These relations are
constant; that is, always the same in the same circumstances. The constant resemblances which
link phenomena together, and the constant sequences which unite them as antecedent and
consequent, are termed their laws. The laws of phenomena are all we know respecting
them. Their essential nature, and their ultimate causes, either efficient or final, are
unknown and inscrutable to us.17”
“Comte,” Mill adds, “claims no originality for this conception of human knowledge,” for he
believed anyone who “made any real contribution to science” implicitly adopted what he terms
Positivism, and he considered Bacon, Descartes, and Galileo “as collectively the founders of the
Positive Philosophy,” which came to fruition with Newton.18
Positivism is nothing but a “philosophy of science.” It has its roots in the “empiricist tradition.”
It rejects metaphysical speculation in favour of “positive” knowledge based on systematic
observation and experimentation.19
Positivism refers to “the doctrine formulated by Comte which asserts that the only true
knowledge is scientific knowledge, that ism knowledge which describes and explains the co-
existence and succession of observable phenomena, including both physical and social
phenomena.”20
Comte used positivism in two distinct ways:
i. Positivism as a doctrine: Positivism as a way of thinking is based on the assumption

that it is possible to observe social life and establish reliable, valid knowledge about
how it works. Such knowledge can be used to affect the course of change and
improve the human condition. Positivism of Comte which represents a philosophical
17
18
Auguste Comte, Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research,1998.
19
20
Collins Dictionary of Sociology, pg. 506 (6th Ed.)

position states that knowledge can be derived only from sensory experience.
Metaphysical speculation, subjective or intuitive insight, and purely logical analysis,
are rejected as outside the realm of true knowledge.21
ii. Positivism as a method: By the concept of “positivism”, Comte meant the
application of scientific methods to understand society and its changes. Comte
emphasised that sociology must depend on careful observation, usually based on
statistical measures of social statics and social dynamics. He also recognised that
sociology would have to be less experimental than the physical sciences because of
the ethical and practical difficulties intervening in people’s lives.22
Comte regarded scientific knowledge as ‘relative knowledge’, not absolute. Absolute knowledge
was, and always will be unattainable. Positivism would essentially mean a method of approach.
The methods of science can give us knowledge of the laws of co-existence and succession of
phenomena. According to Comte, positivism is purely an intellectual way of looking at the
world. He believed that the mind should concentrate on the observation and classification of
phenomena23. He believed that both theological and metaphysical speculations were as likely to
be fiction as truth, and that there is no way of determining which the cause is. Thus, it would be
more profitable if a person would direct his thoughts to the lines of thinking which are most truly
prolific, namely to observe and classify data.24
Comte’s positivism has its own impact on the world of social thinking. Today, positivism
signifies adherence to an empiricist view of the nature of science. It also projects a scientific
approach to the study of social life on the empiricist model 25. It also signifies an attempt to
discover social laws similar to the law like regularities discovered by natural sciences and an
absolute insistence on the separation of facts and values.26
Many criticisms have been levelled against positivism. Positivism has had relatively litte
influence in contemporary sociology for several reasons. Current views argue that positivism
encourages a misleading emphasis on superficial facts without any attention to underlying
21
22
Ibid
23
24
Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology,901 (44th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010)
25
26
Ibid

mechanisms that cannot be observed. “Criticisms of positivism commonly focuses on the

inappropriateness of natural-scientific methods in the human or social sciences. 27 Consciousness,
cultural norms, symbolic meaning, and intentionality, etc., are variously held to be distinctive
human attributes which dictate a methodological gulf between natural sciences and the study of
human social life.”28 Methodologically, a central problem of positivism arises from the so-called
‘problem of empiricism’, the lack of any conclusive basis for ‘verification’ in ‘inductive’ to itself
unverifiable.29
Chapter 3
Law of three stages
27
28
Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, pg.510
29
Collins Dictionary of Sociology, pg.507

This law was given by Auguste Comte in his magnum opus Course de philosophie positive and
in system de politique positive.30 By theory of “the law of three stages” Comte gave birth not
only to a specific methology of studying knowledge but also analysed the evolution of human
thinking and its various stages.31 The principle evolved by Comte in the study of human thinking
presumes gradual evolution and development in human thinking and is known as “the law of
three stages of thinking.” As Mill also points out32, “Comte's uniqueness lay therefore not in
originating Positivism but in placing it within a theory of history that claims human culture
developed (and always must develop) in three stages”, these three stages are:
1. Theological: In this stage human beings rely on supernatural agencies to explain what they
can't explain otherwise.33
The Theological, which is the original and spontaneous form of thought, regards the facts of the
universe as governed not by invariable laws of sequence, but by single and direct volitions of
beings, real or imaginary, possessed of life and intelligence. In the infantile state of reason and
experience, individual objects are looked upon as animated.34 The next step is the conception of
invisible beings, each of whom superintends and governs an entire class of objects or events. The
last merges this multitude of divinities in a single God, 35 who made the whole universe in the
beginning, and guides and carries on its phaenomena by his continued action, or, as others think,
only modifies them from time to time by special interferences 36. Hence in this stage we believe in
supernatural powers. There are three aspects through which human passes in this stage.
i. Fetishism: people in this stage worship stones, trees ,land, plants etc and compare it to god.
ii. Polytheism: Here people worship different gods for different reasons and for different
occasions. Some may worship many gods.37
iii. Monotheism: Here the human being is confused. The rationality of god merges into one.
They worship one god.
30
C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society,630 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi)
31
Ibid
32
Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 910(44th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010)
33
34
35
Paul B. Horton & Chester L. Hunt, Sociology, 100 (6th Ed., Tata McGraw Hill) (2010)
36
Paul B. Horton & Chester L. Hunt, Sociology,109 (6th Ed., Tata McGraw Hill) (2010)
37

Priest and military are dominant classes in this stage. In the theological (the pre-Enlightenment
phase) man's place in society was referenced to God or nature, in which the divine will subsumed
human rights, and man blindly believed in whatever he was taught by his ancestors.38
2. Metaphysical: In this stage human beings attribute effects to abstract but poorly understood
causes. It is the transitional stage between Theological and positive. Here a person applies his
logic but does not deny the existence of god.39 They neither accept it nor reject it.
Metaphysical, accounts for phaenomena by ascribing them, not to volitions either sublunary or
celestial, but to realized abstractions.40 In this stage it is no longer a god that causes and directs
each of the various agencies of nature: it is a power, or a force, or an occult quality, considered
as real existences, inherent in but distinct from the concrete bodies in which they reside, and
which they in a manner animate.41 Instead of Dryads presiding over trees, producing and
regulating their phenomena, every plant or animal has now a Vegetative Soul. Here Lawyers
were dominant over other classes. In the metaphysical (the post-Enlightenment humanist phase)
there was reference to explanations by impersonal abstract thought, and the universal rights of
humanity were most important.42
3. Positive: Here human beings understand the scientific laws that control the world. The
positive stage represents the scientific way of thinking.43 As Comte stated, “In the final, the
positive stage, the mind has given over the vain search after absolute notions, the origin and
destination of the universe, and the causes phenomena, and applies itself to the study of their
laws- that is their invariable relations of succession and resemblance.44
Comte developed his concept of positivism, which is a purely intellectual way of “looking at the
world. He stressed the need for observation and classification of phenomena. He even said that it
is futile to try to determine cause. We can observe uniformities, or laws , but it is mere
38
39
40
Ibid
41
Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology, 20(1st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006)
42
43
44

speculation to assign cause to these uniformities”- he stated. Positivism actually glorified

observation and classification of data. The positive thinking suits the needs of the industrial
society45. This stage believed in industrialisation. In the positive (the final scientific stage) the
search for absolute knowledge is abandoned, scientific explanation is based on observation,
experiment and comparison, and individual rights are considered more important than the rule of
any one person.Comte not only identified three stages in the development of human thinking but
also observed three stages in the development of society or social organisation. Each of these
modes of thinking determines and corresponds to a type of social organisation.46
He declared that theological thinking leads to a military and monarchical social organisation.
Here the god would be there as the head of the hierarchy as king of kings and a mighty warrior.
The human beings would be arranged in a military organisation. Divine sanction rules. This
divine sanction could hardly be questioned or challenged. Dogmatism would prevail here and its
challengers would be punished or threatened with severe punishments.47
“Metaphysical thinking produces a government nominated by doctrines of abstract rights.” It

corresponds to a legalistic social organisation. The Medieval social organisation clearly
represented this kind of society. Here the natural rights were substituted for divine rights. A
priesthood is furthered. Society becomes legalistic, formal and structural. In Europe nation-state
emerged during this stage.48
Positive thinking produces a society dominated by industrialists. It leads to an industrial society

in which men inquire into the nature and utilisation of the natural resources and forces. Here the
main stress is on the transformation of the material resources of the earth for human benefit, and
the production of material inventions. In this positive or scientific stage the great thought blends
itself with the great power.
Comte has made it abundantly clear that the intellectual evolution is the most important aspect in
human progress. Still, he was aware of the importance of factors such as increase i n population,
division of labour,etc in determining the rate of social progress.49
45
Ibid
46
Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology,10 (1st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006)
47
48
49

According to L.A. coser, “It can hardly be questioned that Comte’s Law of Three stages has a
strongly materialistic or idealistic bias.50”
According to Prof. N.S. Timasheff, “Comte’s law of three stages is the meaning ascribed to it
by its inventor is clearly invalid. Neither of the later approaches wholly supersede the religious
approach; rather, there has been accumulation and often admixture of the three.51”
Chapter 4
Hierarchy of the sciences
Comte’s theory of hierarchy of sciences is connected with the “law of three stages.” In fact,
hierarchy of the sciences, are based on the notion that each subject has evolved from a general,
simple to a highly complex level. In this regard, Comte states, “Any kind of knowledge reaches
the positive stage early in proportion to its generality, simplicity, and independence of the other
departments.”52 According to this view hierarchy of sciences evolved from mathematics to
sociology. i.e. mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and finally the positive
50
51
Ibid
52

science of society called sociology. “Each science in the series depends for its emergence on the
prior developments of its predecessors in a hierarchy marked by the law of increasing complexity
and decreasing generality.53
The second pillar of positive philosophy, the law of the classification of the sciences, has
withstood the test of time much better than the law of the three stages. Of the various
classifications that have been proposed, it is Comte's that is still the most popular today. 54 This
classification, too, structures the Course, which examines each of the six fundamental sciences—
mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, sociology—in turn 55. It provides a way to
do justice to the diversity of the sciences without thereby losing sight of their unity. This
classification also makes Comte the founder of the philosophy of science in the modern sense.
From Plato to Kant, reflection on science had always occupied a central place in philosophy, but
the sciences had to be sufficiently developed for their diversity to manifest itself. It was thanks to
his education at the École Polytechnique that Comte, from 1818, began to develop the concept of
a philosophy of science56. At about the same time Bolzano wrote his Wissenschaftslehre (1834)
and Mill his System of Logic (1843), Comte's Coursepresented in sequence a philosophy of
mathematics, of astronomy, of physics, of chemistry, of biology, and of sociology. 57 Comte's
classification is meant not to restore a chimerical unity, but to avoid the fragmentation of
knowledge. Thanks to it, the sciences are related to one another in an encyclopedic scale that
goes from the general to the particular, and from the simple to the complex: moving from
mathematics to sociology, generality decreases and complexity increases.
The law of classification of the sciences also has a historical aspect: it gives us the order in which
the sciences develop. For example, astronomy requires mathematics, and chemistry requires
physics. Each science thus rests upon the one that precedes it. As Comte puts it, the higher
depends on the lower, but is not its result. The recognition of an irreducible diversity already
contains a disavowal of reductionism (in Comte's wording: ‘materialism’), which the
classification allows one to make explicit. The positivist clearly sees that the tendency towards
reductionism is fed by the development of scientific knowledge itself, where each science
53
Ibid
54
55
56
57

participates in the evolution of the next; but history also teaches us that each science, in order to
secure its own subject matter, has to fight invasions by the preceding one. ‘Thus it appears that
Materialism is a danger inherent in the mode in which the scientific studies necessary as a
preparation for Positivism were pursued. Each science tended to absorb the one next to it, on the
grounds of having reached the positive stage earlier and more thoroughly58.’
While philosophers of science have always recognized the place of Comte in the history of their
discipline, the philosophy of science presented in the Course, and a fortiori the one in
the System, have hardly been studied (Laudan 1981). Comte's philosophy of science is based on a
systematic difference between method and doctrine.59 These are, to use Comtean terminology,
opposed to one another, as the logical point of view and the scientific point of view. Method is
presented as superior to doctrine: scientific doctrines change (that is what “progress” means), but
the value of science lies in its methods60. At the level of doctrine, mathematics has a status of its
own, well indicated in the second lesson, where it is presented last, and as if to make up for
something forgotten. As much as it is itself a body of knowledge, it is an instrument of discovery
in the other sciences, an ‘organon’ in the Aristotelian sense. Among the remaining sciences,
leaving sociology aside for the moment, two occupy a pre-eminent place:
Astronomy and biology are, by their nature, the two principal branches of natural philosophy. 61
They, the complement of each other, include the general system of our fundamental conceptions
in their rational harmony. The solar system and Man are the extremes within which our ideas
will forever be included. The system first, and then Man, according to the course of our
speculative reason: and the reverse in the active process: the laws of the system determining
those of Man, and remaining unaffected by them62.
The positive method comes in different forms, according to the science where it is applied: in
astronomy it is observation, in physics experimentation, in biology comparison. The same point
of view is also behind the general theory of hypotheses in the 28th lesson, a centerpiece of the
positive philosophy of science. 63
58
Course De Positive Philosophy, (1851) ( Vol 1,pg. 39)
59
60
61
62
Course de Positive Philosophy, Pg. 718 (1830) (vol. 1)
63

Finally, classification is the key to a theory of technology. The reason is that there exists a
systematic connection between complexity and modifiability: the more complex a phenomenon
is, the more modifiable it is.64 The order of nature is a modifiable order. Human action takes
place within the limits fixed by nature and consists in replacing the natural order by an artificial
one. Comte's education as an engineer had made him quite aware of the links between science
and its applications, which he summarized in an oft-quoted slogan: ‘From science comes
prevision, from prevision comes action’. Only death prevented him from writing the System of
Positive Industry, or Treatise on the Total Action of Humanity on the Planet, announced as early
as 1822.65
In totality the hierarchy of science is linked to the “law of three stages.” And its main purpose
was to classify the knowledge on the basis of the principle of increasing dependence. The
classification begins with Mathematics and ends with sociology. It classifies the sciences into
Inorganic and organic and emphasizes on a holistic approach in social science.66
Chapter 5
Comte’s views regarding Sociology and Religion of
Humanity
Comte is regarded as the ‘father of sociology.’ According to him, sociology represents the
culmination of the development of sciences.67 It is based on Mathematics and is dependent on
biology, chemistry, physics and astronomy. These sciences have taken time to become free from
theological and metaphysical speculation and thinking. Hence, Comte argued that sociology too
64
65
66
67

would require some time to attain the full status of the positive science. Comte believed that
sociology would be helped to become scientific by means of his writings.68
According to Comte, there are two divisions in Sociology: Social Statics and Social Dynamics.
The distinction between these two does not refer to two classes of facts , but they represent two
aspects of the same theory. The distinction corresponds to the double conception of order and
progress. Order and progress, or statics and dynamics, are hence always correlative to each
other.69
i. Social statics: It refers to “the study of the laws of action and reaction of the different
parts of social order.” It studies the balance of mutual relations of elements within a
social whole. It deals with the major institutions of society such as family, economy
or policy.70 It inquires into the co-existence of social-phenomena. Comte stressed that
there must always be a “spontaneous harmony between the whole and the part of the
social system.” The parts of a society cannot be studied separately’ “as if they had an
independent existence.” When the harmony between the parts is lacking a
pathological situation may prevail. Social statics emphasises the unity of society or
social organisation.71
ii. Social Dynamics: It focuses on whole societies as the unit of analysis, and reveals
how they developed and changed through time. Social dynamics was equated by
Comte with human progress and evolution. 72 It inquires as to how the human
civilisation progresses in different stages. Comte was convinced towards ever
increasing perfection.
Comte defined Sociology as the science of social phenomena “subject to natural and invariable
laws the discovery of which is the object of our investigation.” He mentioned the following
features of sociology in some or the other context73.
1. Soiology is the objective analysis of social phenomena.

2. Sociology is an abstract science
68
69
70
71
72
73

3. Sociology is a synthetic science. It synthesises the knowledge of all other sciences.

4. It can make predictions
5. It is a science committed to social reconstruction and moral rejuvenation.
The religion of Humanity

The System's subtitle is Treatise on Sociology Instituting the Religion of Humanity. While the
different forms of deism preserve the idea of God and dissolve religion into a vague religiosity,
Comte proposes exactly the contrary: a religion with neither God nor the supernatural. His
project had little success; he even accomplished a tour de force by uniting both believers and
non-believers against him. The many ridiculous details of Comte's religion made the task of his
opponents even easier. But this aspect of Comte's thought deserves better than the discredit into
which it has fallen74.
Comte defines religion as ‘the state of complete harmony peculiar to human life […] when all
the parts of Life are ordered in their natural relations to each other’. Comte also defines religion
as a consensus, analogous to what health is for the body. Religion has two functions, according
to the point of view from which one considers existence: in its moral function, religion should
govern each individual; in its political function, it should unite all individuals. Religion also has
three components, corresponding to the threefold division of the cerebral table: doctrine,
worship, and moral rule (discipline). Comte's discussion is mainly about the first two. If one
considers the first to be related to faith and the second to love, their relation takes two forms:
‘Love comes first and leads us to the faith, so long as the growth is spontaneous; but when it
becomes systematic, then the belief is constructed in order to regulate the action of love’ 75. At
first, Comte had followed the traditional order and presented doctrine before worship, but he
soon gave priority to worship, and saw this change as a considerable step forward.
In the positivist religion, worship, doctrine and moral rule all have the same object, namely
Humanity, which must be loved, known, and served. Already the General Conclusions of
theCourse compared the concept of Humanity to that of God, affirming the moral superiority of
the former. But only in 1847 does Comte make the substitution explicitly; sociological synthesis
comes to replace theological synthesis. Membership of Humanity is sociological, not biological.
74
Course de Positive Philosophy, 8 (1851, vol. 2)
75
Course de Positive Philosophy, 83 (1852, vol. 2)

In order to belong to what is defined as the continuous whole of convergent beings — Comte's
term for (mainly human) beings who tend to agree — one has to be worthy of it. All ‘producers
of dung’ are excluded; conversely, animals that have rendered important services can be
included. Strictly speaking, it is to sociology that one should turn for knowledge of the laws of
the human order but, as the final science recapitulates all others, it is the whole encyclopaedic
scale (échelle ; it is the result of the classification of sciences), that constitutes the doctrine of the
new religion, which thereby becomes demonstrated and is no longer revealed or inspired.76
The principal novelty of Comte's religion therefore resides in worship, which is both private
(taking place within the family) and public. The positivists set up a whole system of prayers,
hymns, and sacraments (Wright 1986). As these were all largely inspired by Catholic worship, it
was said that it was ‘catholicism without Christ’, to which the positivists replied that it was
‘catholicism plus science’. The best known and most original aspects of Comte's religion are
found in its public worship, and in the positivist liturgical calendar. As Humanity consists more
of dead than living beings, positivism designed a whole system of commemorations, which were
to develop the sense of Humanity's historical continuity. Thus, the worship of Humanity takes is
the worship of great men. Unlike the French revolutionary calendar, which followed the rhythm
of the seasons, the positivist calendar takes its inspiration from history and pays homage to great
men from all nations and all times.
The wish to maintain the distinction between temporal and spiritual powers led Comte and his
followers to demand the separation of Church and State. It has been noticed less often, however,
that the two forms of power stand in differing relations to space. 77 Its characteristic alliance of
the monarchy with the people against the aristocracy was accompanied by centralization that the
Revolution contented itself with consolidating. One might therefore be led to believe that Comte
was a partisan of centralized political (that is: temporal) power, whereas the contrary was in fact
the case, as he proposed to divide France into seventeen administrative regions, more or less
equivalent to the old provinces78 . Centralization applies only to the spiritual power.
76
77
78

The “theory of religion of humanity” represents a radical change in the development of Comte’s
rational thinking. Its salient features are:79
1. It is a religion without god

2. Sociologist-priests constitute the moral guides of the comtean concept of a new society.
3. It is a new religion which has been designed to begin a new epoch
4. It is a social religion based upon morality.
5. It is not in favour of traditional Christianity.
6. It is virtually a religion of Human Unity.
Critical Comments:80
1. Comtean religion of humanity has been widely criticized. Christian scholars say that the
religion of humanity is nothing more than a mixture of science and catholic religion.
2. Some have commented that it is not a religion but primarily a code of morality.
3. Thomas Huxley called Comte’s religion “Catholicism minus Christianity.” Some criticize
it as a highly “egoistic religion”
4. Many consider it utopian in character.
Major Findings
 Though Comte’s ideas have been widely criticized it would be unjust to say that Comte
just introduced the term sociology and did nothing to develop it.
 His insistence on positive approach, objectivity and scientific attitude contributed to the
progress of social sciences in general.
 Comte’s ideas relating to the Law of three stages reveal that man became more and more
rational and scientific in his approach by gradually giving up speculations, imaginations
etc.
79
80

 He also showed that there is a close relation between intellectual evolution and social
progress.
 His classification has shown why sociology depends on other sciences.
 Comte contributed to the growth of theoretical sociology because he did a lot of
analytical work.
 The division between social statics and social dynamics is valid and important even
today.
 He attempted to uphold the “moral order” in the society through his religion of humanity.
 He also became a guide and a source of inspiration for many social thinkers.
Conclusion
Comte made many contributions to Sociology and hence was called the “Father of
Sociology.” Comte thought of sociology as a positivistic science and elaborated four
methods of sociology. He distinguished social statics from social dynamics. He was a
macrosociologist and viewed social structures as taming individual egoism. He offered a
dialectical view of structural change. He attempted to integrate theory and practice.
But his theories failed on many aspects. His thought was distorted by his own experiences
in life. He was out of touch with the real world. His empirical work is laughable, and his
theoretical work far too generalized. His work is only marginally sociological. He made no

original contributions to sociology. His sociology was primitive in its organicism — i.e.,
he crudely viewed society in terms of the workings of the human body. Comte heavy-
handedly imposed his theoretical frameworks on the data he was analyzing. His self-
conceit led him to make many ridiculous pronouncements and blunders. His positivist
religion is strangely similar to Catholicism, which casts doubt on his scientific intentions.
His plans for the future appear totalitarian and bizarre.
Comte represents a general retreat from Enlightenment humanism that has continued to
this day. His positivist ideology, rather than celebrating the rationality of the individual
and wanting to protect people from state interference, fetishised the scientific method,
proposing that a new ruling class of technocrats should decide how society should be run
and how people should behave. This idea has its seeds in Saint-Simon’s thought but finds
its expression in a much more developed authoritarian form in Comte.
Bibliography
Books
 Giddens, Anthony, (2008) Sociology, (5th Ed)., Winley India, New Delhi.
 Horton Paul B. & Chester L. Hunt,(2010) Sociology, (6th Ed., Tata McGraw Hill)
 Rao,C.N. Shankar, Sociology of Indian Society, (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi)
 Choudhary Sujit Kumar, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology,(2006) (1 st Ed., Gagandeep
Publishers)

 Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, (2010)An introduction to Sociology, (44 th Ed., Kitab
Mahal Publishers)
Websites:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Comte
 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/comte/
 http://www.6sociologists.20m.com/comte.html
 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/130750/Auguste-Comte
 http://membres.multimania.fr/clotilde/
 http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/Comte.htm
 http://www.victorianweb.org/philosophy/comte.html
 http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/comte.html
 http://www.thegreatdebate.org.uk/Comte1.html
 http://www.biography.com/people/auguste-comte-9254680

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Auguste Comte and his Sociological Thoughts

“Contributions of Auguste Comte to

Dr. Uttam Kumar Panda

ROLL NO. – 136

HIDAYATULLAH NATIONAL LAW

Submitted on: 10.04.2012

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4. August Comte: Biographical Sketch 6

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1. To study the life and works of Auguste Comte,

AUGUSTE COMTE: BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

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Major Works of Auguste Comte are15

 Plan des travaux scientifiques necessaires pour reorganiser la society, 1822.

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 Cours de philosphie positive, 1830-42,

 A General View of Positivism, 1848.

 Systeme de philosophie positive, 1851-54.

 Catechisme positiviste, 1852.

 Appeal to Conservatives, 1855

 Synthese subjective, 1856.

Positivism or the Positive Philosophy of Comte

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Comte used positivism in two distinct ways:

i. Positivism as a doctrine: Positivism as a way of thinking is based on the assumption

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mechanisms that cannot be observed. “Criticisms of positivism commonly focuses on the

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speculation to assign cause to these uniformities”- he stated. Positivism actually glorified

“Metaphysical thinking produces a government nominated by doctrines of abstract rights.” It

Positive thinking produces a society dominated by industrialists. It leads to an industrial society

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1. Soiology is the objective analysis of social phenomena.

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3. Sociology is a synthetic science. It synthesises the knowledge of all other sciences.

The religion of Humanity

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1. It is a religion without god

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