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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.
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Contents
Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. Objectives 3. Research Methodology 2 4 5 5
4. August Comte: Biographical Sketch 5. Positivism or the Positive Philosophy of Comte 6. Law of three stages 7. Hierarchy of Sciences 8. Comtes views regarding Sociology and Religion of Humanity
6 9 12 16 19
23 24 25
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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-Simons thought but finds its expression in a much more developed authoritarian form in Comte.
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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.
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Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 902 (44 th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) http://mediatheque.montpellier-agglo.com/22887393/0/fiche___document/&RH=1219250799417. Retrieved on 5th april 2012 at 4 pm. 3 Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 904 (44 th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) 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 (1 st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006) 6 http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture25a.html#course retrieved on 7th april 2012
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C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 675 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) Oxford English Dictionary: altruism. 2nd ed. 1989. http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50006618. 9 Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology, 5 (1 st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006) 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 Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 907 (44th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) 13 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 677(S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi)
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Plan des travaux scientifiques necessaires pour reorganiser la society, 1822. 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 Cimetire du Pre 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
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C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 679(S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) Ibid 16 Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 904 (44th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010)
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17 18
Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 906 (44 th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) Auguste Comte, Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research,1998. 19 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 692 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi)
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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
20 21
Collins Dictionary of Sociology, pg. 506 (6 th Ed.) C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 620 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) 22 Ibid 23 Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 903 (44 th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) 24 Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology,901 (44 th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010)
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Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology, 6 (1 st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006) Ibid 27 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 621 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) 28 Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, pg.510 29 Collins Dictionary of Sociology, pg.507
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30 31
C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society,630 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) Ibid 32 Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 910(44 th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) 33 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 620 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) 34 Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology, 5 (1 st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006) 35 Paul B. Horton & Chester L. Hunt, Sociology, 100 (6 th Ed., Tata McGraw Hill) (2010)
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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
36 37
Paul B. Horton & Chester L. Hunt, Sociology,109 (6 th Ed., Tata McGraw Hill) (2010) Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology, 14 (1 st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006) 38 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society,650 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) 39 Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology,907 (44 th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) 40 Ibid 41 Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology, 20(1 st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006) 42 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 615(S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi)
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43
Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology,901 (44 th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010)
44 45
C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 629(S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) Ibid 46 Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology,10 (1 st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006) 47 Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 905(44 th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010)
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48 49
Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology,11 (1st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006) Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 930(44 th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) 50 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society,630 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) 51 Ibid
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Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology, 19 (1st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006) Ibid 54 Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 903(44 th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) 55 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 613 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) 56 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society,615 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) 57 Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology,918 (44 th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010)
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58 59
Course De Positive Philosophy, (1851) ( Vol 1,pg. 39) Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 900(44 th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) 60 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society,640 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi)
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61 62
Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology,910 (44th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) Course de Positive Philosophy, Pg. 718 (1830) (vol. 1) 63 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 617(S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) 64 Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology,7 (1st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006) 65 Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology, 17(1st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006) 66 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 640(S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi)
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C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 621(S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 930(44th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) 69 Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology, 931 (44th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) 70 Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology,30 (1st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006) 71 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 622(S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi)
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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 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.
C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society,630 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 634(S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) 74 Course de Positive Philosophy, 8 (1851, vol. 2)
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75 76
Course de Positive Philosophy, 83 (1852, vol. 2) C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society,650 (S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi)
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The theory of religion of humanity represents a radical change in the development of Comtes 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 Comtes religion Catholicism minus Christianity. Some criticize it as a highly egoistic religion 4. Many consider it utopian in character.
77 78
C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 661(S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi) Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, An introduction to Sociology,919 (44th Ed., Kitab Mahal Publishers) (2010) 79 Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology, 12(1st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) (2006) 80 C.N. Shankar Rao, Sociology of Indian Society, 663(S. Chand Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi)
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Major Findings
Though Comtes 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. Comtes 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.
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.
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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 heavyhandedly imposed his theoretical frameworks on the data he was analyzing. His selfconceit 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-Simons thought but finds its expression in a much more developed authoritarian form in Comte.
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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) (1st Ed., Gagandeep Publishers) Vidhya Bhushan & D.R. Sachdeva, (2010)An introduction to Sociology, (44th 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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