Auguste Comte was a French philosopher considered the founder of the discipline of sociology. He asserted that sociology should study human social relationships using the methods of the natural sciences. Comte coined the term "sociology" and developed key ideas including the law of three stages of human progress, the hierarchy of sciences, and his normative doctrine for a new positive social order governed by scientific experts and based on principles of love, order, and altruism.

1. SOC444 Sociological
Theory:
Auguste Comte
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
1

2. Auguste Comte
References
Comte, Auguste. 1896. The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte.
Comte, Auguste. 1912. Systeme de Politque Positive. 4th ed.
Coser, Lewis A. 1971. Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in
Historical and Social Context. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.
Hoult, Thomas Ford. 1974. Dictionary of Modern Sociology. Totowa,
NJ: Littlefield, Adams & Company.
Perdue, William D. 1986. Sociological Theory: Explanation, Paradigm,
and Ideology. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.
Rapoport, Anatol. 1953. Operational Philosophy: Integrating
Knowledge and Action. New York: Harper & Brother Publishers.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
2

3. Auguste Comte
1798-1857
The father of sociology
Born in France
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
3

4. Auguste Comte
The new social science that Comte sought to
establish was first called social physics but he
later found the term stolen by another
intellectual so he coined the word sociology , a
hybrid term compounded of Latin and Greek
parts (Coser 1971:3).
Comte first used the term sociology in print in
1838 (Perdue 1986:37).
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
4

5. Auguste Comte
The “father of sociology;” French philosopher who asserted
. . . that the fate of mankind depends in many respects
upon the development of a science of human social
relationships, that establish scientific disciplines have
progressed only to the degree that they have been
grounded in facts and experience, and that therefore the
needed new science of human social relationships (a
science which Comte suggested naming sociology)
should adopt the study and experimental techniques of
the physical sciences (Hoult 1974:76).
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
5

6. Auguste Comte: Positivism
August Comte’s philosophy based on his
conclusion that an intellectual discipline
progresses only to the degree that it is
grounded in facts and experience, I.e.,
rests on information about which one can
reasonably make positive statements. . .
(Hoult 1974:243-244)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
6

7. Auguste Comte: Positivism
Positivism . . . seeks to describe only what
“obviously” is, what one can really be
positive about, that is, sense data. A strict
positivist, seeing a black sheep on a
meadow could not say, “There is a black
sheep.” He could only say, “I see a sheep,
one side of which is black.”
(Rapoport 1953:74)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
7

8. Auguste Comte: The Law of Human
Progress (or The Law of Three Stages)
As early as 1822, when he was still an
apprentice to Saint-Simon, Comte set
himself the task “to discover through what
fixed series of successive transformations
the human race, starting from a state not
superior to that of the great apes,
gradually led to the point at which civilized
finds itself today” (Comte 1912:Appendix).
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
8

9. Auguste Comte: The Law of Human
Progress (or The Law of Three Stages)
Applying what he conceived to be a method
of scientific comparison through time,
Comte emerged with his central
conception, The of Human Progress
or The Law of Three Stages .
(Coser 1971:7)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
9

10. Auguste Comte: The Law of Human
Progress (or The Law of Three Stages)
Each of our leading conceptions--each
branch of our knowledge, passes
successively through three different
theoretical conditions: the Theological or
fictitious; the Metaphysical or abstract;
and the Scientific or positive. . .
(Comte 1912:1-2)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
10

11. Auguste Comte: The Law of Human
Progress (or The Law of Three Stages)
, , , Comte insists repeatedly that
“intellectual evolution is the preponderant
principle” of his explanation of human
progress . . .
(Coser 1971:8)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
11

12. Auguste Comte: The Law of Human
Progress (or The Law of Three Stages)
St age Tim e Period Ruled or Dom inat e
Dom inat ed Social Unit
Theological From the dawn of Priest Family
--Fictitious man
Military
Metaphysical Middle Ages Churchmen State
--Abstract
Renaissance Lawyers
Scientific Industrialization Industrial Entire Human
--Positive Administrators Race
Scientific Moral
Guides
(Coser 1971:7-8)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
12

13. Auguste Comte:
Hierarchy of the Sciences
Comte’s second best known theory,
Hierarchy of the Sciences, is connected
with the Law of Human Progress.
The social sciences, the most complex and
the most dependent for their emergence
on the development of all others, are the
“highest” in the hierarchy.
(Coser 1971:9)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
13

14. Auguste Comte:
Hierarchy of the Sciences
Sociology
(Social Sciences)
Biology
Chemist ry
Physics
Ast ronomy
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
14

15. Auguste Comte:
Social Statics and Social Dynamics
Social Statics
The study of the conditions and pre-
conditions of social order
Social Dynamics
The study of human progress and
evolution
(Coser 1971:10-12)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
15

16. Auguste Comte:
Social Statics and Social Dynamics
Social Statics
Family
True social unit
Smallest unit of social study in sociology
The individual is not a legitimate component
for research in sociology
Families become tribes and tribes become
nations
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
16

17. Auguste Comte:
Social Statics and Social Dynamics
It is within the family that the elementary
egotistical propensities are curbed and
harnessed to social purposes. “It is by the
avenue [of the family] that man comes
forth from his mere personality, and learns
to live in another, while obeying his most
powerful instincts.”
Comte (1896:281) and Coser (1971:10)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
17

18. Auguste Comte:
Social Statics and Social Dynamics
The family is the most elementary social
unit and the prototype of all other human
associations, for these evolve from family
and kinship groups.
Coser (1971:10)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
18

19. Auguste Comte:
Social Statics and Social Dynamics
Three Factors of Social Statics
Language
The means of storing the thought and culture
of preceding generations
Without a common language men could
never have attained solidarity and consensus
Without this collective tool no social order is
possible
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
19

20. Auguste Comte:
Social Statics and Social Dynamics
Religion
A common religious belief provides a guide for
behavior
Religion furnishes the unifying principle, the common
ground without which individual differences would
tear society apart.
Religion is the root of social order
It is indispensable for making legitimate the
commands of government. No temporal power can
endure without the support of spiritual power.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
20

21. Auguste Comte:
Social Statics and Social Dynamics
Division of Labor
Creates interdependence among members of
the society
Society ultimately benefits from a properly
functioning division of labor
As societies become more complex, the
division of labor is the only means to properly
adjust to that complexity
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
21

22. Auguste Comte:
Social Statics and Social Dynamics
Social Dynamics
If the Social Statics are correctly balanced
within a society, Social Dynamics can be
orderly and positive for society.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
22

23. Auguste Comte:
Normative Doctrine
Normative Doctrine
Comte developed a complex blueprint of the good positive
society of the future, a society directed by the spiritual
power of priests of the new positive religion and leaders
of banking and industry. These scientific sociologists-
priests would be the moral guides and censors of the
community, using the force of their superior knowledge
to recall men to their duties and obligations; they would
be the directors of education and the supreme judges of
the abilities of each member of society.
Coser (1971:12-13)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
23

24. Auguste Comte:
Normative Doctrine
Comte’s New Positive Order
Love as its Principle
Order as its Basis
Propress as its Aim
Altruism
Live for Others
Sunday, October 21, 2012
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender
24