SOCIOLOGY NOTES AUGUSTE COMTE

FOUNDERS OF SOCIOLOGY IN EUROPE

Although Greek thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle wrote about society and social relationship, they are not recognized as sociologists. Sociologists proper emerged from the 19^th C as social practitioners who wrote to meet the challenges and social problems which arose following the social Revolutions in France and Industrial Revolution in Britain and other political upheavals elsewhere in Europe. These are called Founders of sociology and their writings have great influence to sociology. In this section, the contributions of five of these important founders from Europe, namely, Auguste Comte, Herbet Spencer, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber are explained in detail. 

AUGUSTE COMTE (1798-1857)

Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte was Born and educated in southern France. He studied mathematics and natural sciences but he was discontinued due to misconduct – after organizing a riot against school’s administration.

He became secretary of Henry Saint-Simon with whom he was very much influence. But their relationship was terminated after Comte was accused of plagiarism(copying Saint-Simon’s work).He held another job but later quit to become a private tutor.

It was Comte who coined the word ‘Sociology’ to refer to a social science. He is known as the “Father of sociology”.

 Works:

·         Positive Philosophy(1842) and

·         Positive Polity (1852).

Philosophy: Positivism i.e. the world can only be understood through scientific inquiry.

Comte spent his life time determining the nature of society, laws and principles necessary for its growth and development, and the methods used for the study of social phenomena.

Ideas:

·         Law of Human Progress.

·         Classification of Science.

·         Law of social statistics and social dynamics.

THE LAW OF HUMAN PROGRESS:

As far as his ideas of society are concerned, he introduced the law of human progress. This law emphasizes that all human intellectual progress(human thinking) passes through three theoretical stages as society evolves from simple to complex phenomenon: theological, Metaphysical and Positive or scientific stages.

·         Theological stage:  This is where knowledge begins, in the belief of religion and the supernatural. Everything is explained and understood through the supernatural. Human mind is ruled by religious myths, superstitions and delusions. The family/kinship is the standard model (prototypical) of social unit and political dominance is held by priests and military personnel.

The primitive man in this stage believes in the fetishes i.e. objects or idols believed to have magical powers that can, for example cure diseases. He assigns life to them. But soon there were too many fetishes which brought confusion. Man then believing in several gods – hence, polytheism. They created the priests to interpret the goodwill and bestow blessings of these gods. Ideas of many gods also created confusion and frustration to them, they created one god, believe in Monotheism. This kind of thinking was suited to the military society. After that they started having feelings and imaginations of rational thinking. They shifted to metaphysical stage.

·         Metaphysical Stage: In this stage explanations are based on abstract philosophical speculation. Here the state replaces the family as standard model of social unity and political dominance is held by clergy and lawyers.

Rationalism started to take hold in the minds of the people. God was seen as an abstract Being who cannot be behind every phenomenon in the world. The reality of the world was explained in terms of principles or powers. Dominance was taken by lawyers.

·         Positive or scientific stage: In this stage explanations are based on four things: observation, experimentation comparison, and historical analysis. All human race replaces the state as a social unit. Political dominance is held by industrial administrators and scientific moral guides.

Here is where Comte developed his philosophy of Positivism. An intellectual way of looking at the reality of the world through observation and classification of phenomenon.

As mentioned above, shifts in the form of knowledge in societies are directly linked to changes in the structure of society.  In other words, each stage is associated with a special type of social organization. Thus in the theological stage kinship (family) was the most prominent unit of society. There was military and monarchical social organization. God is at the top of the hierarchy as king of kings, and human beings are arranged in a military organization. There are divine sanctions, which cannot be challenged and whoever tries to challenge them is threatened with punishments.

 When knowledge moved to metaphysical stage, state was substituted for kinship. Metaphysical thinking necessitated formulation of abstract rights. The social organization is legalistic (medieval social organization). The natural rights are substituted for divine rights. National states emerged in Europe during this period.

 The last stage, positive/scientific, industry became the prominent structural unit of the society and scientists became the spiritual leaders, replacing priests and philosophers. There is transformation of material resourced for the benefits of human beings.

Comte’s ideas concerning the law of three stages are presented in the following table:

Three stages	Theological stage	Metaphysical stage	Positive stage
Nature of society	Military society	Legal society	Industrial society
Unit of society	Family	Nation	Entire humanity
Basic principle or type of order	Love of family or Domestic order	Mutual co-existence or collective order	Universality or universal order
Prevailing sentiments	Affection or Attachment	Mutual respect or veneration	Kindness or benevolence.

CLASSIFICATION OF SCIENCE:

Comte classified science on the basis of his theory of three stages. Just as the human mind developed and evolved from the simple to the complex, so is science and scientific knowledge. However, different sciences progress in different rates.

He had a principle through which he gauged the development of science.”The principle of increasing complexity and independence, and decreasing generality.” A branch of knowledge will reach the positive stage depending on the degree of its generality, simplicity and independence. Comte praised Mathematics and regarded it as compulsory to all disciplines. Education without mathematics is faulty, inexact, and unreliable.

Anatomy, the simplest subject, developed first. Then physics, Chemistry, Biology and finally Sociology. The social sciences are the most complex and most dependent for their development. Therefore, they occupy the highest place in the hierarchy. Social physics or sociology is the last and the greatest of all the sciences.

LAW OF SOCIAL STATIC AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS:

Another important theory of Comte with regard to Society; Comte viewed the society as a type of “organism” just like plants and animals. It is composed of a structure of many interrelated parts, and it evolves from simpler to more complex forms.

Therefore, society should focus on Social statics i.e. the structure of the organism as the family, economy, and polity. It studies the balance of mutual relations of elements within a social whole. These parts or institutions of the society should be studied in relation to each other. A careful study of this structure will result in social order and stability. These parts have no independent existence, therefore, must be studied in conjunction with other parts to bring harmony to the society. When harmony is lacking among these parts the society becomes pathological. Therefore, social statics emphasizes the unity of society or social organizations.

On the other hand, Social dynamics refers to this organism’s process and forms of change. That is, the whole society is studied as a unit of analysis and attention is put on how it develops and changes through time. Comte believed that society progress through stages and moves towards ever increasing perfection.

Comte believed that the combination of social statics and social dynamics will effect positive social changes in the society.

Contribution and Application:

1.      By giving sociology a name he helped to lay the foundation for a new science which filled the gap between natural and social sciences.

2.      His stand that societies should be studied scientifically is the basis of social research. In sociological research, investigators apply scientific methods mentioned by Comte: observation, experimentation, and comparison. Social actions are governed by laws and principles. Comte termed modern scientific knowledge as the ‘religion of humanity’ and the scientists are the priests of this positive religion. They are the moral guides and controllers of the community. He called himself the High Priest of this religion. Thus he considered himself a prophet and founder of a new positive religion that brings salvation to all ailment of humankind.

3.      His theory of the law of three stages shows a link between intellectual evolution and social progress.

Criticism:

1.      He was mixing science and morality. Towards the end of his life he forgot his scientific undertaking and resorted to a kind of prophet who is bringing a social reform and religion. People wanted him to give a science of religion but he made science, a religion. Many sociologists find his view on the new religion of human to be very extreme.

2.      Many people, particularly philosophers, do question whether his last stage of human progress is really the last stage of human development.