Chapter 2:Auguste Comte and Positivism Sociology

Main points Biographical Sketch Law of the Three Stages Four basic methods Social Statics and Social Dynamics A critical assessment

(1798-1857)

Learning objectives After reading this chapter, students should be able to: 1.define Comte's version of positivism, identify his four major met

hodologies; 2.identify and define Comte's three stages, as well as the law of t

he three stages; 3.discuss Comte's conception of sociology; 4.discuss the intellectual, social, and political context in which

Comte developed his sociology (e.g., the aftermath of the French Revolution);

5.discuss Comte's notion of order and progress, as well as their relationship to the law of the three stages;

6.distinguish between social statics and social dynamics; 7.identify the role of the individual in Comte's sociology and cont

rast egoism and altruism; 8.discuss Comte's views on the roles of the family, religion, the d

ivision of labor, and language, as well as their effects on individuals;

9.identify Comte's contributions to contemporary sociology; and critically assess Comte's work.

Biographical Sketch and Works

In 1798,Auguste Comte was born in Montpelier,France.. his parents were middle class and his father was a tax collector of the local

agent. In 1812,he became a student of the Ecole Polytechnique( 巴黎综合技术学

校 ).but he and his whole class were dismissed from the School for their rebelliousness and their political ideas in 1816.

In 1817 he became a secretary and “adopted son” to Claude Henri Saint-Simon .

in 1824 they had a raging out because Comte believed that Saint-Simon wanted to omit his name from one of his contributions.

In 1825,He married Caroline Massin( 卡罗列娜．马森 ) ,in 1842 they divorced. In 1826,he was begaining to concoct( 编造 )the Positivism philosophy sche

me. In 1830,he worked on the six-volume work for which he is best known ,Cou

rs de Philosophic Positive,which was finally published in its entirety in 1842. In 1844,he made friendship with a lady named 克洛蒂尔德． In 1851,he had completed the four-volume Systeme de Politique Positive. in 1857, he was died.

Law of the Three StagesComte identified three basic stages and proceeded to argue that the human mind, people through the maturation process, all branches of knowledge, and the history of the world all pass successively through these three stages.

1.The Theological Stage2.The Metaphysical Stage3.The Positivistic Stage

1.The Theological Stage （ before 13c)

In this stage ,the human mind is searching for the essential nature of things, particularly their origin(where do they come from?) and their purpose (why do they exist?).

What this comes down to is the search for absolute knowledge,it is assumed that all phenomena are created,regulated,and given their purposes by supernatural forces （超自然的存在物） or beings(gods).

2.The Metaphysical Stage(13c-18c)

It is a transitional stage between the preceding theological stage and the ensuing positivistic stage.

In the metaphysical stage, abstract forces ( 抽象力量） replace supernatural beings as the explanation for the original causes and purposes of things in the world.

Mysterious forces such as “nature” are invoked to explain why things are the way they are.( 认为大自然这样的抽象的力量为万事万物的基础 )

3.The Positivistic Stage( after 18c) This is the final and most important stage in Com

te’s system. At this stage, 　 people give up their vain search for original causes or purposes. 　people drop such nonscientific ideas as supernatural beings and mysterious forces.

In this stage ,people look for the invariable natural laws that govern all phenomena（获得支配各种现象的内在规律）． the search for these laws involves both doing empirical research and theorizing.

Comte differentiated between concrete and abstract laws. concrete laws must come inductively from empirical research, whereas abstract laws must be derived deductively from theory.

Four basic methodsComte explicitly identified four basic methods for sociology—four basic ways of doing social research in order to gain empirical knowledge of the real social world.

The first is the observationThe second is the experimentThe third is the comparisonThe forth is the historical research

1.Observation Observations should be directed by some theory ,and when made ,they should be connected to some law.

Direction observation and indirection observation

2.Experiment

This method is better suited to the other sciences than it is to sociology .it is obviously virtually impossible to interfere with, and to attempt to control, social phenomena.

.direction experiment and the indirection experiment

3.Comparison

Three subtypes. First, we can compare humans to lower animal societies.

Second, we can compare societies in different parts of the world.

Third, we can compare the different stages of societies over time. (particularly important)

4.Historical research

Most important method in sociology.

Comte wrote: ”necessity of historical studies as the foundation of sociological speculation”

Comte's Sociology Comte separated social statics from social dynamics. Social sta

tics are concerned with the ways in which the parts of a social system (social structures) interact with one another, as well as the functional relationships between the parts and to the social system as a whole. Comte therefore focused his social statics on the individual, as well as such collective phenomena as the family, religion, language, and the division of labor.

Comte placed greater emphasis on the study of social dynamics, or social change. His theory of social dynamics is founded on the law of the three stages; i.e., the evolution of society is based on the evolution of mind through the theological, metaphysical, and positivist stages. He saw social dynamics as a process of progressive evolution in which people become cumulatively 渐增 more intelligent and in which altruism eventually triumphs 战胜 over egoism. This process is one that people can modify 改进 or accelerate, but in the end the laws of progressive development dictate 强行规定 the development of society..

Social Statics Comte defines the sociological study of social statics as

“the investigation of the laws of action and reaction of the different parts of the social system”( 即暂时不考虑社会系统的基本运动 , 去研究该系统的各个组成部分的作用和反作用 .)

In his social statics , Comte was anticipating many of the ideas of later structural functionalists. deriving his thoughts from biology Comte developed a perspective on the parts (or structures) of society, the way in which they function, and their relationship to the larger social system. Comte also saw the parts and the whole of the social system in a state of harmony. the idea of harmony was later transformed by structural functionalists into the concept of equilibrium.

There are three factors in his social statics: 1.Individual; 2.Family; 3.Social integration

1.Individual Comte sees the individual as imperfect, dominated by “lower”

forms of egoism rather than “higher”, more social forms of altruism. In fact ,Comte sees this dominance of egoism as rooted in the brain, which is viewed as having both egoistic and altruistic regions.

To Comte,the chief problem of human life is the need for altruism to dominate egoism.

If we are to hope to be able to create a “better” world ,the selfish motives of individuals must be controlled so that the altruistic impulsed will emerge.egoism cannot be controlled from within the individual ,the controls must come from outside the individual,from society.

Above all ,Comte’s actors are not only egoistic but also weak and powerless. in a very real sense, people don’t create the social world;rather ,the social world creates people, at least those animated by the nobler altruistic motives.

2.Family The family ,not the individual ,is the building block

of Comte’s sociology ,”the true social unit is certainly the family”.

Individuals constitute different(microscopic) units,and (macroscopic) society cannot be formed out of them.families are similar,albeit smaller,macroscopic units ,and therefore they can be the basis of the larger society.

The family not only is the building block of society but also serves to integrate the social;the family is the “school” of society.thus ,it is the family that must play a crucial role in the control of egoism impulses and the emergence of individual altruism.

3.Social integration There are three elements of society that serves to hold people together First is the language. Language allows people to interact with one anoth

er.and helps promote unity among people,it connects people not only with their contemporaries but also with their predecessors and their successors.

Second is the division of labor. Social solidarity is enhanced in a system in which i

ndividuals are dependent upon others.society should have a division of labor so that people can occupy the position for which they qualify on the basis of their ablities and training.

But he worried about the dangers of excessive specialization in work .

Third is the religion. Doing a kind of structural-functional analysis, Comte

identifies two major functions of religion. One ,it serves to regulate individual

life, once again primarily by subduing egoism and elevating altruism.

Two, it has the more macroscopic function of fostering social relationships among people, thereby providing the basis for the emergence of large-scale social structures

Social Dynamics

A. progress is observable all aspects of society,physical ,moral,intellectual,political.

B. the intellectual is the most important,history is dominated by the development of ideas leaading to changes in other areas

C. Comte say “correlations“ between basic intellectual stages of material development,types of social units,types of social order,and sentiments

Intellectual phase meterial phase type of social unit type of order prevailing sentiment

Theological military the family domestic attachment 依恋

Metaphysical legalistic the state collective veneration 崇敬

Positive industrial race universal benevolence 仁慈

Comte's Positive Contributions and Weaknesses Ritzer and Goodman identify 8 positive contributions that

Comte made to sociology: 1.Comte coined the term "sociology" and may be vie

wed as its founder. 2.Comte thought of sociology as a positivistic science. 3.He elaborated four methods of sociology. 4.He distinguished social statics from social dynamics.

5.He was a macrosociologist. 6.He viewed social structures as taming individual eg

oism. 7.He offered a dialectical view of structural change. 8.He attempted to integrate theory and practice.

Ritzer and Goodman also identify 11 basic weaknesses of Comte's work:

1.Comte's thought was distorted by his own experiences in life. 2.He was out of touch with the real world. 3.He was out of touch with other thinkers of his times. 4.His empirical work is laughable, and his theoretical work far too genera

lized. 5.His work is only marginally sociological. 6.He made no original contributions to sociology. 7.His sociology was primitive in its organism — i.e., he crudely viewed so

ciety in terms of the workings of the human body. 8.Comte heavy-handedly imposed his theoretical frameworks on the dat

a he was analyzing. 9.His self-conceit led him to make many ridiculous pronouncements and

blunders. 10.His positivist religion is strangely similar to Catholicism, which casts d

oubt on his scientific intentions. 11.His plans for the future appear totalitarian and bizarre.