AUGUSTE COMTE (1798-1857)
Auguste Comte was born in 1798 during the ferment of the French
Revolution, that vast complex of events which heralded the birth of the
modern world. You have already read in Unit 1 about the shattering changes
taking place in the European social order in the aftermath of the French
Revolution. To understand Auguste Comte’s ideas fully, one has to
appreciate how passionately he was concerned with the problems which
people and society of his time were faced with. In order to gain an insight
into Auguste Comte as a person, let us discuss his biographical sketch.
Biographical Sketch
Auguste Comte (1798-1857), a French sociologist, was born at Montpellier
France of Catholic royalist parents (see Figure 2.1: Auguste Comte, 1798-
1857). In 1814 he was admitted to one of the most prestigious educational
institutions of France at that time called the Ecole Polytechnique. Here
most of the professors were scholars in mathematics and physics. They
had little interest in the study of society. But young Auguste Comte, being
sensitive to the kind of social disorder that France was undergoing due to
the Revolution, was keenly interested in human affairs and the study of
society. Comte was involved in a student protest at the Ecole Polytechnique
because of which he was expelled.
At the Ecole Polytechnique, he came under the influence of such
traditionalist social philosophers as L.G. Bonald and Joseph de Maistre. It
was from them that he borrowed the notion of an order governing the
evolution of human society. From Condorcet, another major philosopher
of France, who was beheaded later, Comte got the idea that this evolution
occurs along with progress in human societies. In 1824, he became a
secretary to Saint-Simon, an aristocrat by birth but an utopian socialist in
ideas. He became a close friend and disciple of Saint-Simon, who stimulated
his interest in economics. It was at this period that Auguste Comte worked
out the general conception of a science of society, which he named
sociology.
Auguste Comte’s ambition was the political reorganisation of human
society.
According to him, such reorganisation will have to depend upon
the spiritual and moral unification of society. Thus, with Saint-Simon, he
developed several major ideas. However, their partnership was shortlived
and they ended up quarreling with each other.
Later Auguste Comtepublished some of his lecture notes in, Cours de Philosophie Positive (638 Vols., Paris 1830-42, 5th ed.). In this work he wrote about the law of three
stages and developed his conception of a science of society. While working
on this book, he discovered the principle of cerebral hygiene. This meant
that in order to keep his mind uncontaminated he stopped reading other
people’s works.
Between 1851-1854, he wrote a treatise entiled, System of Positive Politics,
(4 Vols.). In this book he applied the findings of theoretical sociology
towards solving the social problems of his society. It was during this period
that he met Clotilde de Vaux who became a close friend. Her death in
1846, a year after they met, affected Auguste Comte to such a great degree
that his ideas turned towards mysticism and religion. His ideas, which he
put down in Systems of Positive Politics, shifted partly from positivism to
construct a religion of humanity. Due to this change in ideas he lost many
of his disciples and intellectual friends such as, J.S. Mill of England. He
took his role as the prophet of social regeneration so seriously that he even
sent a plan to the Russian King suggesting ideas to reorganise society.
However, till his end Auguste Comte’s works were not recognised in France.
Only after his death, in 1857 (a very important year in Indian history) he
became popular first in England and then in France and Germany. The
direct imprint of his thinking can be seen in the French scientific movement
of the last half of the nineteenth century, represented by such thinkers as,
Taine, Renan, Berthelot and such outstanding English figures as J.S. Mill.
His Social Environment
During the early nineteenth century the intellectual climate in France was
favourable to the development of new, critical and rational ideas.
Achievements in natural sciences and mathematics were a matter of pride
and a new confidence had developed in the use and application of methods.
You already know about the emphasis that the Enlightenment philosophers
placed on the ideas of progress and human reason.
Auguste Comte, being a product of his time, was also affected by the social destruction brought by the French Revolution. He lived in the aftermath of
the French Revolution. He was continually distressed and disturbed by the
disorder of his time, and by the material and cultural poverty of the people.
His fundamental and lifelong preoccupation was how to replace disorder
by order; how to bring about a total reconstruction of society.
He saw the French Revolution as a crucial turning-point in the history of
human affairs.
The ancient regime was gone. Society was unable to cope
with the new developments in scientific knowledge and industrialisation.
A new order of social institutions in keeping with the changes taking place
had not yet taken a firm hold. Amidst this confused state people too were
in a state of flux. Their thoughts were disoriented. There were great
differences between belief and knowledge. In other words the traditional
value system was disturbed during this period. And the cultural values and
goals of people lacked coherence, confidence and worthwhile objectives.
Erstwhile loyalties had broken. New ones were yet to take root. The people
were, therefore, in a state of confusion. A new policy or a new order of
feeling, thought and action was necessary for the new, complex, industrial
society. But this reconstruction needed a reliable basis of knowledge.
The question posed by Auguste Comte was – what would this body of
knowledge be built upon? And the answer given by Comte was that people
themselves have to take initiatives and found a science which would provide
them with an alternative world view. It was no longer possible to fall back
upon Gods, upon religion, upon metaphysical forces, traditional modes of
belief and action. People were now responsible for their own destiny. They
must make their own society.
You will ask, how? And it is towards answering this that Comte formulated
his central ideas about sociology. But before we move on to the study of
the central ideas formulated by Comte, let us tell you about the influence
of Saint-Simon on Auguste Comte.
It is important to know about Saint-Simon (1760-1825) because many of the ideas developed by Comte had their roots in Saint-Simon’s works (see Box 2.1). In fact, Auguste Comte worked as a secretary to Saint-Simon and together they formulated the
idea of a science of society.
Saint Simon, a Utopian Socialist
Saint-Simon was a French aristrocat, but in his ideas he was one of the
first utopian socialists (i.e. one who believes in an ideal society where
everyone gets an equal share of opportunities and resources). He
believed that the problems of his society could be best solved by
reorganising economic production. This will deprive the class of property
owners from their means of production and thus they will lose their
economic freedom which was an important value of his time (Timasheff
1967:19). If you recall the main ideas about the French Revolution,
you will remember that the feudal French society was divided into three
estates, the first being the clergy, second the nobility and the third, the
commoners. The first two estates between themselves owned the major
portion of the landed property as well as wealth and status. It is this
social and economic structure that Saint-Simon wanted to reorganise.
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In a joint publication Plan of the Scientific Operations Necessary for
the Reorganising of Society, (1822) Saint-Simon and Comte wrote about
the law of three stages through which each branch of knowledge must
pass. They said that the object of social physics, the positive science of
society later renamed as ‘sociology’, is to discover the natural and
immutable laws of progress. These laws are as important to the science
of society as the laws of gravity, discovered by Newton, are to the
natural sciences. The intellectual alliance between Saint-Simon and
Auguste Comte did not last long and in fact ended in a bitter quarrel.
According to Auguste Comte, sociology is the abstract theoretical science
of social phenomena. He had initially called it social physics but later he
reluctantly changed this name. He changed it because he found that a
Belgian scientist, Adolphe Quetelet, had used this term to describe simple
statistics. Thus, Auguste Comte was compelled to use the word sociology,
a combination of a Latin and a Greek word which denotes “the study of
society on a highly generalised or abstract level” (Timasheff 1967: 4).
Now in the next few pages we will discuss the central ideas of Auguste
Comte, such as the law of three stages, the hierarchy of sciences and his
division of static and dynamic sociology.
The Central Ideas
You have noticed that Auguste Comte wanted to reorganise society on
new lines. He felt that the momentuous changes taking place in European
society, especially French, will have to be accompanied by new principles.
These new principles will have to integrate and balance the different aspects
of human life. Thus, for him, the discovery of social laws, which explain
these principles of change in society, were very important.
Auguste Comte was not only talking about sociology as a science of society
but also believed that it must be used for reorganizing society. He wanted
to develop a naturalistic science of society. This science would be able to
both, explain the past development of mankind as well as, predict its future
course. According to him the society of human beings must be studied in
the same scientific manner as the world of nature. The progress in natural
sciences in establishing the laws of nature, such as Newton’s laws of gravity,
Copernicus’s discovery that it is the sun which is fixed and the Earth and
other planets which revolve around it, and so on; led him to believe that
even in society we can discover social laws.
Auguste Comte maintained that the new science of society must rely on
reasoning and observation instead of depending on the authority of tradition.
Only then can it be considered scientific. But every scientific theory must
also be based on observed facts and vice versa.
Thus, Comte’s science of society, that is sociology, was to be patterned
after the natural sciences. It was to apply the methods of inquiry used by
the natural sciences, such as observation, experimentation, and comparison.
However, along with the natural science methods given above, he also
introduced the historical method. This historical method (different form
the one used by historians) was a healthy advance in sociology. Historical
method compares societies throughout the time in which they have evolved.
This method is at the core of sociological inquiry since historical evolution
is the very crux of sociology.
Through these methods Comte wanted to discover social laws because
only when we know the laws in society can we restructure it. Thus, in his
view social action beneficial to human beings became possible once the
laws of motion of human evolution are established. It is these laws which,
according to Auguste Comte, define the basis for social order.
According to Comte, nothing is absolute. Every knowledge is true in a
relative sense and does not enjoy everlasting validity. Thus, science has a
self-corrective character and whatever does not hold true is rejected. In
this sense this new science, which was also called positive science, replaced
the authority of tradition that could not be refuted (Coser 1971: 5).
The Law of the Three Stages
In, as early as 1822 when Auguste Comte was still working as Saint-Simon’s
secretary, he attempted to discover the successive stages through which
human race had evolved. In his study he began from the state of human
race, not much superior to the great apes, to the state at which he found
the civilised society of Europe. In this study he applied scientific methods
of comparison and arrived at The Law of Human Progress or The Law of
Three Stages (See Figure 2.1: Auguste Comte, 1798-1857).
Auguste Comte believed that the evolution of the human mind had taken
place along with the evolution of the individual mind. In other words, he
holds that just as each individual develops from the stage of a devout believer
in childhood, to a critical metaphysician (one who questions the abstract
notions of existence) in adolescence, to a natural philosopher in adulthood,
so also the human beings and their system of thought have evolved in
three major stages.
These three stages of the evolution of human thought are:
i) The theological stage;
ii) The metaphysical stage; and
iii) The positive stage.
i) In the theological stage, the mind explains phenomena by ascribing
them to beings or forces comparable to human beings. In this stage,
human being attempts to discover the first and the final causes (the
origin and purpose) of all effects. Thus, human mind at this level
supposes that all phenomena are produced by the immediate action of
supernatural beings. For example, some tribes believed that diseases
like small pox, cholera were the expressions of God’s anger.
ii) In the metaphysical stage, the mind explains phenomenon by invoking
abstract entities like ‘nature’. These abstract entities are personified
abstractions. Human beings pursue meaning and explanation of the
world in term of ‘essences’, ‘ideals’, ‘forms’, i.e. in short, in a
conception of some ultimate reality, such as God.
Early Sociology iii) In the positive stage human beings cease to look for ‘original sources’
or final causes because these can be neither checked against facts nor
utilised to serve our needs. Human mind at this stage applies itself to
the study of their laws, i.e. their invariable relations of succession and
resemblance (Coser 1971: 7). Human beings seek to establish laws
which link facts and which govern social life.
Auguste Comte maintained that each stage of the development of human
thoughts necessarily grew out of the preceding one. Only when the previous
stage exhausts itself does the new stage develop. He also correlated the
three stages of human thought with the development of social organisation,
types of social order, the types of social units and material conditions found
in society. He believed that social life evolved in the same way as the
successive changes in human thought took place.
According to Auguste Comte all societies undergo changes. There is a
stage in which a society enjoys social stability. Intellectual harmony prevails
in such a society and various parts of the society are in equilibrium. This
is the organic period of the society. But when the critical period comes the
old traditions, institutions, etc. become disturbed. Intellectual harmony is
lost and there is a disequilibrium in society. The French society, in Auguste
Comte’s view, was undergoing this critical period. He said that there is
always a transitional state of anarchy which lasts for some generations at
least and the longer it lasts the more complete is the renovation of that
society (Coser 1971: 8).
In terms of the history of human race, the theological stage of human
thought, in relation to political dominance, was dominated by the priests
and ruled by military men. The metaphysical stage which corresponded
roughly to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, was dominated by the
Church men and lawyers. The positive stage, which was just dawning,
will be dominated by industrial administrators and scientific moral guides.
The theological stage, in terms of social unit, had family as its important
unit, the metaphysical stage had state as its important unit, and the positive
stage will have the whole human race as the operative social unit.
Auguste Comte believed that intellectual evolution, i.e. the evolution of
human thought, was the most important basis of his explanation of human
progress. However, he did not rule out other causal factors. For example,
he considered growth in human population a major factor that determined
the rate of social progress. The more population there was, the more division
of labour occurred. The more division of labour there was found in a society,
the more evolved it became. Thus, he saw division of labour as a powerful
force in the process of social evolution. Following on his footsteps, Emile
Durkheim developed his theory of social division of labour which you
will learn in Block 3 of this course.
The law of the three stages was also linked with the hierarchy of the
sciences. The same way as thought systems evolved, as did the different
sciences came to be established. All the sciences, except sociology had
reached the positive stage but with the development of sociology the process
was complete.
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