Editing Auguste Comte (section)

===Comte's positivism===
{{Main|Positivism}}
Comte first described the [[epistemology|epistemological]] perspective of positivism in ''[[The Course in Positive Philosophy]]'', a series of texts published between 1830 and 1842. These texts were followed by the 1848 work, ''[[A General View of Positivism]]'' (published in English in 1865). The first 3 volumes of the ''Course'' dealt chiefly with the physical sciences already in existence (mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology), whereas the latter two emphasized the inevitable coming of [[social science]]. Observing the circular dependence of theory and observation in science, and classifying the sciences in this way, Comte may be regarded as the first [[philosopher of science]] in the modern sense of the term.<ref name="plato.stanford.edu">{{Cite book |chapter-url= http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/comte/ |title= Stanford Encyclopaedia: Auguste Comte |website= plato.stanford.edu|chapter= Auguste Comte |publisher= Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |year= 2018 }}</ref> Comte was also the first to distinguish natural philosophy from science explicitly. For him, the physical sciences had necessarily to arrive first, before humanity could adequately channel its efforts into the most challenging and complex "Queen science" of human society itself. His work ''View of Positivism'' would therefore set out to define, in more detail, the empirical goals of the sociological method. {{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}

Comte offered an [[Sociocultural evolution|account of social evolution]], proposing that society undergoes three phases in its quest for the truth according to a general law of three stages.

Comte's stages were (1) the ''theological'' stage, (2) the ''metaphysical'' stage, and (3) the ''positive'' stage.<ref>Giddens, ''Positivism and Sociology'', 1</ref>
# The Theological stage was seen from the perspective of 19th century France as preceding the [[Age of Enlightenment]], in which man's place in society and society's restrictions upon man were referenced to God. Man blindly believed in whatever he was taught by his ancestors. He believed in supernatural power. [[Fetishism]] played a significant role during this time.
# By the "Metaphysical" stage, Comte referred not to the Metaphysics of [[Aristotle]] or other ancient Greek philosophers. Rather, the idea was rooted in the problems of French society subsequent to the [[French Revolution]] of 1789. This Metaphysical stage involved the justification of ''universal rights'' as being on a vaunted higher plane than the authority of any human ruler to countermand, although said rights were not referenced to the sacred beyond mere metaphor. This stage is known as the stage of the investigation, because people started reasoning and questioning, although no solid evidence was laid. The stage of the investigation was the beginning of a world that questioned authority and religion.
# In the Scientific stage, which came into being after the failure of the revolution and of [[Napoleon]], people could find solutions to social problems and bring them into force despite the proclamations of ''human rights'' or prophecy of ''the will of God.'' Science started to answer questions in full stretch. In this regard, he was similar to [[Karl Marx]] and [[Jeremy Bentham]]. For its time, this idea of a Scientific stage was considered up-to-date, although, from a later standpoint, it is too derivative of [[classical physics]] and academic history.
Comte's [[law of three stages]] was one of the first theories of [[social evolutionism]].

[[File:Theory of Science by A. Comte.svg|thumb|left|''Comte's Theory of Science'' – According to him whole of sciences consists of theoretical and applied knowledge. Theoretical knowledge divides into general fields as physics or biology, which are an object of his research and detailed such as botany, zoology, or mineralogy. Main fields mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and sociology it is possible to order according to a decrescent range of research and complicatedness of theoretical tools what is connected with the growing complexity of investigated phenomenons. Following sciences are based on previous, for example, to methodically capture chemistry, we must imply acquaintance of physics, because all chemical phenomena are more complicated than physical phenomena, are also from them dependent and themselves do not have on them an influence. Similarly, sciences classified as earlier, are older and more advanced from these which are presented as later.]] He once wrote: 'It is evident, the Solar System is badly designed'

The other universal law he called the "encyclopedic law". By combining these laws, Comte developed a systematic and [[hierarchical classification]] of all sciences, including inorganic physics (astronomy, [[earth science]] and chemistry) and organic physics (biology and, for the first time, ''physique sociale'', later renamed ''Sociologie''). Independently from [[Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès]]'s introduction of the term in 1780, Comte re-invented "sociologie", and introduced the term as a [[neologism]], in 1838. Comte had earlier used the term "social physics", but that term had been appropriated by others, notably by [[Adolphe Quetelet]].

{{blockquote|The most important thing to determine was the natural order in which the sciences stand – not how they can be made to stand, but how they must stand, irrespective of the wishes of anyone...This Comte accomplished by taking as the criterion of the position of each the degree of what he called "positivity", which is simply the degree to which the phenomena can be exactly determined. This, as may be readily seen, is also a measure of their relative complexity, since the exactness of a science is in inverse proportion to its complexity. The degree of exactness or positivity is, moreover, that to which it can be subjected to mathematical demonstration, and therefore mathematics, which is not itself a concrete science, is the general gauge by which the position of every science is to be determined. Generalizing thus, Comte found that there were five great groups of phenomena of equal classificatory value but of successively decreasing positivity. To these, he gave the names: astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and sociology.|[[Lester F. Ward]], ''The Outlines of Sociology'' (1898)}}

This idea of a special science (not the humanities, not [[metaphysics]]) for the social was prominent in the 19th century and not unique to Comte. It has recently been discovered that the term "sociology" (as a term considered coined by Comte) had already been introduced in 1780, albeit with a different meaning, by the French essayist [[Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès]] (1748–1836).<ref>''Des Manuscrits de Sieyès. 1773–1799'', Volumes I and II, published by Christine Fauré, Jacques Guilhaumou, Jacques Vallier et Françoise Weil, Paris, Champion, 1999 and 2007. See also Jacques Guilhaumou, ''Sieyès et le non-dit de la sociologie: du mot à la chose, in Revue d'histoire des sciences humaines'', Number 15, November 2006. ''Naissances de la science sociale''.</ref> The ambitious (or many would say 'grandiose') ways that Comte conceived of this special science of the social, however, was unique. Comte saw this new science, sociology, as the last and greatest of all sciences, one which would include all other sciences and integrate and relate their findings into a cohesive whole. It has to be pointed out, however, that he noted a seventh science, one even greater than sociology. Namely, Comte considered "[[Anthropology]], or true science of Man [to be] the last gradation in the Grand Hierarchy of Abstract Science."<ref>1874 translation of ''System of Positive Polity'', Vol. II, pages 356–347, cited in Urbanowicz, Charles F. 1992. "Four-Field Commentary". ''Anthropology Newsletter''. Volume 33, Number 9, page 3.</ref>

[[File:Flag of Brazil.svg|left|thumb|The motto ''Ordem e Progresso'' ("Order and Progress") in the [[flag of Brazil]] is inspired by Auguste Comte's motto of positivism: ''L'amour pour principe et l'ordre pour base; le progrès pour but'' ("Love as a principle and order as the basis; Progress as the goal"). Several of those involved in the military coup d'état that deposed the [[Empire of Brazil]] and proclaimed Brazil to be [[Republic of Brazil|a republic]] were followers of the ideas of Comte.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wais.stanford.edu/Brazil/brazil_orderandprogress42703.html|title=BRAZIL: Order and Progress|website=wais.stanford.edu}}</ref>]]

Comte's explanation of the Positive philosophy introduced the important relationship between theory, practice, and human understanding of the world. On page 27 of the 1855 printing of [[Harriet Martineau]]'s translation of ''The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte'', we see his observation that, "If it is true that every theory must be based upon observed facts, it is equally true that facts can not be observed without the guidance of some theories. Without such guidance, our facts would be desultory and fruitless; we could not retain them: for the most part, we could not even perceive them."<ref>Comte, A. b (1974 reprint). ''The positive philosophy of Auguste Comte freely translated and condensed by Harriet Martineau''. New York: AMS Press. (Original work published in 1855, New York: Calvin Blanchard, p. 27.b)</ref>

Comte's emphasis on the interconnectedness of social elements was a forerunner of modern [[functionalism (sociology)|functionalism]]. Nevertheless, as with many others of Comte's time, certain elements of his work are now viewed as eccentric and unscientific, and his grand vision of sociology as the centerpiece of all the sciences has not come to fruition.

His emphasis on a quantitative, mathematical basis for decision-making remains with us today. It is a foundation of the modern notion of Positivism, modern quantitative [[statistical analysis]], and business decision-making. His description of the continuing cyclical relationship between theory and practice is seen in modern business systems of [[Total Quality Management]] (TQM) and [[Continual improvement process|Continuous Quality Improvement]] where advocates describe a continuous cycle of theory and practice through the four-part cycle of [[Plan-Do-Check-Act]] ([[PDCA]], the [[Shewhart cycle]]). Despite his advocacy of quantitative analysis, Comte saw a limit in its ability to help explain social phenomena.

The early sociology of [[Herbert Spencer]] came about broadly as a reaction to Comte; writing after various developments in evolutionary biology, Spencer attempted to reformulate the discipline in what we might now describe as [[social Darwinism|socially Darwinistic]] terms.

Comte's fame today owes in part to [[Émile Littré]], who founded ''The Positivist Review'' in 1867.

Auguste Comte did not create the idea of Sociology, the study of society, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and culture, but instead, he expanded it greatly. Positivism, the principle of conducting sociology through empiricism and the scientific method, was the primary way that Comte studied sociology. He split sociology into two different areas of study. One, social statics, how society holds itself together, and two, social dynamics, the study of the causes of societal changes. He saw these areas as parts of the same system. Comte compared society and sociology to the human body and anatomy. "Comte ascribed the functions of connection and boundaries to the social structures of language, religion, and division of labor."{{citation needed|date=August 2019}} Through language, everybody in society, both past, and present, can communicate with each other. Religion unites society under a common belief system and functions in harmony under a system. Finally, the division of labor allows everyone in society to depend upon each other.