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Auguste Comte Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.
Auguste Comte facts for kids
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Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte
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| Era | 19th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western Philosophy |
| School | Sociology Positivism |
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Notable ideas
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Law of three stages, Encyclopedic law |
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Influences
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Influenced
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Auguste Comte (full name: Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte; January 17, 1798 – September 5, 1857) was a French thinker who was one from founders of sociology (from the Latin: socius, "companion"; and the suffix -ology, "the study of", from Greek λόγος, lógos, "knowledge" ) and positivism. It was recently discovered that the term 'sociology' had already been introduced in 1780, but with a different meaning, by the French essayist Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1748-1836).
Life
Comte was born at Montpellier, in southern France. After attending the University of Montpellier, one of the oldest European universities, Comte was admitted to the École Polytechnique in Paris.
He married Caroline Massin, but divorced in 1842.
He died in Paris on September 5th, 1857 and is buried at the famous Cimetière du Père Lachaise. His apartment from 1841-1857 is now conserved as the Maison d'Auguste Comte.
Law of three stages
The law of three stages is a socio-historical idea of Auguste Comte. Comte said that knowledge developed in three stages. The first stage is the "theological" stage, in which Comte says that people use religion or gods to explain why things happen or where things came from. The second stage is the "metaphysical" or "abstract" stage, where people use philosophy and abstract ideas to think about their beliefs and explain things. The last stage is the "positive", regarding to the three stages of positivism. Comte said that society could shift into a positivist society if the sciences, including sociology, are all used to explain things.
- Comte, A.; A general view of positivism [Discours sur l'Esprit positif 1844] London, 1856 Google books
- Comte, A.; System of Positive Polity; various publishers
- Comte, A.; Cours de Philosophie Positive, Tome II; Bachelier, Paris, 1835, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31882/31882-h/31882-h.htm; scans of the six volumes are at Projet Gallica
Images for kids
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Comte's Theory of Science – According to Comte, the whole of the sciences consists of theoretical and applied knowledge. Theoretical knowledge can generally be divided into physics and biology, which are the object of his research and can be further partitioned into subfields such as botany, zoology or mineralogy. Comte's ranking of scientific fields - in order, mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and sociology - symbolizes a decreasing range of research and complexity of theoretical tools, but a growing complexity of the phenomena under investigation. Each field in this ranking depends upon those that came before it; for instance, our understanding of chemistry depends upon our understanding of physics, as all chemical phenomena are more complicated than the physics that underlie them, and although the laws of chemistry are affected by the laws of physics, the converse is not true. Similarly, sciences that appear earlier in Comte's hierarchy are considered to be older and more advanced than those which come later.
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Positivist temple in Porto Alegre