The Contribution of “Auguste Comte” to Sociology

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS • The Contribution of “Auguste Comte” to Sociology - Isidore Auguste Marie Francois Xavier Comte was born in Montellier of Southern France in January 1, 1798 and died in 1857. He was the first thinker who realized the need for a distinct science of human society. He is regarded as the father of sociology. He is regarded as the father not because of his significant contributions to the subject but because of creating sociology as a science of society or science of human behaviour. - Comte’s main contribution to positivist philosophy falls into five parts: his rigorous adoption of the scientific method; his law of the three states or stages of intellectual development; his classifi cation of the sciences; his conception of the incomplete philosophy of each of these sciences anterior to sociology; and his synthesis of a positivist social philosophy in a unified form. He sought a system of philosophy that could form a basis for politic al organization appropriate to modern industrial society. - The Law of Three Stages: According to Comte it is the universal law of intellectual development. According to him “Each branch of our knowledge passes through three different theoretical condition s; the theological or fictitious; the metaphysical or abstract; and the scientific or positive.” This is known as the law of three stages because, according to it, human thinking has undergone three separate stages in its evolution and development. (a) Th eological or Fictitious Stage. (b) Metaphysical or Abstract Stage. (c) Positive or Scientific Stage.