Auguste Comte

The French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857) developed a system of positive philosophy. He held that science and history culminate in a new science of humanity, to which he gave the name "sociology."

Born in Montpellier, Auguste Comte abandoned the devout Catholicism and royalism of his family while in his teens. He entered the École Polytechnique in 1814 and proved himself a brilliant mathematician and scientist. Comte was expelled in 1816 for participating in a student rebellion. Remaining in Paris, he managed to do immense research in mathematics, science, economics, history, and philosophy.

At 19 Comte met Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, and as a "spiritually adopted son," he became secretary and collaborator to the older man until 1824. The relationship between Saint-Simon and Comte grew increasingly strained for both theoretical and personal reasons and finally degenerated into an acrimonious break over disputed authorship. Saint-Simon was an intuitive thinker interested in immediate, albeit utopian, social reform. Comte was a scientific thinker, in the sense of systematically reviewing all available data, with a conviction that only after science was reorganized in its totality could men hope to resolve their social problems.

In 1824 Comte began a common-law marriage with Caroline Massin when she was threatened with arrest because of prostitution, and he later referred to this disastrous 18-year union as "the only error of my life." During this period Comte supported himself as a tutor. In 1826 he proposed to offer a series of 72 lectures on his philosophy to a subscription list of distinguished intellectuals. After the third lecture Comte suffered a complete breakdown, replete with psychotic episodes. At his mother's insistence he was remarried in a religious ceremony and signed the contract "Brutus Napoleon Comte." Despite periodic hospitalization for mental illness during the following 15 years, Comte was able to discipline himself to produce his major work, the six-volume Course of Positive Philosophy (1830-1842).

Positivist Thought

Positivism as a term is usually understood as a particular way of thinking. For Comte, additionally, the methodology is a product of a systematic reclassification of the sciences and a general conception of the development of man in history: the law of the three stages. Comte, like the Marquis de Condorcet whom he acknowledged as a predecessor and G. W. F. Hegel whom he met in Paris, was convinced that no data can be adequately understood except in the historical context. Phenomena are intelligible only in terms of their origin, function, and significance in the relative course of human history.

But unlike Hegel, Comte held that there is no Geist, or spirit, above and beyond history which objectifies itself through the vagaries of time. Comte represents a radical relativism: "Everything is relative; there is the only absolute thing." Positivism absolutizes relativity as a principle which makes all previous ideas and systems a result of historical conditions. The only unity that the system of positivism affords in its pronounced antimetaphysical bias is the inherent order of human thought. Thus the law of the three stages, which he discovered as early as 1820, attempts to show that the history of the human mind and the development of the sciences follow a determinant pattern which parallels the growth of social and political institutions. According to Comte, the system of positivism is grounded on the natural and historical law that "by the very nature of the human mind, every branch of our knowledge is necessarily obliged to pass successively in its course through three different theoretical states: the theological or fictitious state; the metaphysical or abstract state; finally, the scientific or positive state."

These stages represent different and opposed types of human conception. The most primitive type is theological thinking, which rests on the "empathetic fallacy" of reading subjective experience into the operations of nature. The theological perspective develops dialectically through fetishism, polytheism, and monotheism as events are understood as animated by their own will, that of several deities, or the decree of one supreme being. Politically the theological state provides stability under kings imbued with divine rights and supported by military power. As civilization progresses, the metaphysical stage begins as a criticism of these conceptions in the name of a new order. Supernatural entities are gradually transformed into abstract forces just as political rights are codified into systems of law. In the final stage of positive science the search for absolute knowledge is abandoned in favor of a modest but precise inquiry into the relative laws of nature. The absolutist and feudal social orders are replaced gradually by increasing social progress achieved through the application of scientific knowledge.

From this survey of the development of humanity Comte was able to generalize a specific positive methodology. Like René Descartes, Comte acknowledged a unity of the sciences. It was, however, not that of a univocal method of thinking but the successive development of man's ability to deal with the complexities of experience. Each science possesses a specific mode of inquiry. Mathematics and astronomy were sciences that men developed early because of their simplicity, generality, and abstractness. But observation and the framing of hypotheses had to be expanded through the method of experimentation in order to deal with the physical sciences of physics, chemistry, and biology. A comparative method is required also to study the natural sciences, man, and social institutions. Thus even the history of science and methodology supports the law of the three stages by revealing a hierarchy of sciences and methodological direction from general to particular, and simple to complex. Sociology studies particular societies in a complex way since man is both the subject and the object of this discipline. One can consider social groups from the standpoint of "social statics," which comprises the elements of cohesion and order such as family and institutions, or from the perspective of "social dynamics," which analyzes the stage of continuous development that a given society has achieved.

Later Years

By 1842 Comte's marriage had dissolved, and he was supported by contributions from various intellectuals, including the English philosopher J.S. Mill. In 1844 he met Clothilde de Vaux, and they fell deeply in love. Although the affair was never consummated because Madame de Vaux died in the next year, this intense love influenced Comte in his later work toward a new religion of humanity. He proposed replacing priests with a new class of scientists and industrialists and offered a catechism based on the cult of reason and humanity, and a new calendar replete with positivist saints. While this line of thought was implicit in the aim of sociology to synthesize order and progress in the service of humanity, the farcical elements of Comte's mysticism has damaged his philosophical reputation. He died in obscurity in 1857.

Further Reading

Comte's various writings have never been gathered into a critical edition. But Comte personally approved of Harriet Martineau's English redaction of the six volumes of his main work into The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte (3 vols., 1896). Secondary studies of Comte include J. S. Mill, Auguste Comte and Positivism (2d ed. rev. 1866; 5th ed. 1907); L. Lévy-Bruhl, The Philosophy of Auguste Comte (trans. 1903); and a chapter in Frank E. Manuel, The Prophets of Paris (1962). For Comte's relationship with Saint-Simon see Manuel's The New World of Henri Saint-Simon (1956); and for his relation to the history of positivism see Leszek Kolakowski, The Alienation of Reason (trans. 1968). Also useful are the two works of Richmond Laurin Hawkins, Auguste Comte and the United States, 1816-1853 (1936) and Positivism in the United States, 1853-1861 (1938), and F. S. Marvin, Comte: The Founder of Sociology (1936).

Additional Sources

Gould, F. J. (Floyd Jerome), The life story of Auguste Comte: with a digest review of ancient, religious, and "modern" philosophy, Austin, TX: American Atheist Press, 1984.

Pickering, Mary, Auguste Comte: an intellectual biography, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Standley, Arline Reilein, Auguste Comte, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981.

(1798-1857) French sociologist (he invented the word ‘sociology’ in 1838 although he always had doubts about the combination of Latin and Greek roots) and political philosopher. Auguste Comte based his system of ideas on positivism, originally a theory of knowledge which he had a large part in developing, but which also became the title usually applied to his substantive theories. He was greatly influenced by his time at the École Polytechnique (one of the Grandes Écoles), and by Saint-Simon by whom he was employed as secretary from 1817 to 1824.

In the Cours de philosophie positive (published in six volumes between 1830 and 1842), Comte was concerned with philosophy, which he saw as a necessary basis for the rest of science. Later, in the Système de politique positive (four volumes, 1851-4), he was concerned with political restructuring. However, the basis of nearly all his later work in both parts had appeared in four essays written in the 1820s. Comte was not only a system builder, but he also remained committed to the same basic system from his first formulation of it at the age of 24.

In the first part, he advocated positivism as epistemology, rejecting the possibility of knowledge other than of correlative laws showing the connections between phenomena, generated by the application of reason to empirical observations. In the past, human knowledge had passed through two earlier stages, the theological (itself progressing from fetishism through polytheism to monotheism) and the metaphysical. This pattern of development constitutes Comte's philosophy of history (historicism). In the theological stage, humanity had invented imaginary beings to explain why things were as they were, and this stage had lasted more than 3,000 years. The metaphysical stage had been much shorter, from the fourteenth century to the eighteenth, and consisted in effect of a critique of the theological stage. It still posed questions in the form of ‘Why?’, but substituted abstractions such as nature for supernatural beings. This did not constitute a viable alternative to the theological explanation, and the metaphysical stage was essentially transitional. The positive stage was in process of replacing the earlier ones in Comte's day, and had substituted the question ‘How?’ This law of the three stages was extremely influential, and was accepted in its general form, for example, by John Stuart Mill, who rejected most of the rest of Comte's ideas.

Comte divided sociology into social statics and social dynamics. The latter consists of the philosophy of history, the former of Comte's analysis of human nature. He classified these as the sciences of progress and order respectively. Every change in the social order brought about by human beings depended for Comte upon the intellectual system in operation. Because the French Revolution had been based on the metaphysical stage, it had not been able to produce a viable replacement for the ancien régime which it had destroyed.

The primacy of theory over action produced in Comte's social thought a division between spiritual and temporal powers, with the latter subordinated to the former. The temporal power was to be exercised by industrialists and bankers who would achieve the maximum economic development through their expertise. Comte dismissed any element of democracy because it would allow ignorance to dominate knowledge. Even in industrial society, however, some moral foundation beyond mere efficiency and well-being would be necessary, and this would be provided by the spiritual power. It was to be exercised by leading intellectuals who would provide it through the religion of humanity.

Despite the ridicule which his religion of humanity generally attracted (although it was to have considerable success in, for example, Brazil), Comte has been remarkably influential. He was important to Spencer, Renan, Taine, Durkheim, and Lévy-Bruhl as well as John Stuart Mill. Echoes of his thought can be found in logical positivism, analytical philosophy, and particularly in one of the most widespread approaches in twentieth-century American political science, behaviouralism.

— Carl Slevin

(click to enlarge)
Auguste Comte, drawing by Tony Toullion, 19th century; in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. (credit: H. Roger-Viollet)

(born Jan. 19, 1798, Montpellier, France — died Sept. 5, 1857, Paris) French thinker, the philosophical founder of sociology and of positivism. A disciple of Henri de Saint-Simon, he taught at the École Polytechnique (1832 – 42) but gave free lectures to workingmen. He gave the science of sociology its name and established the new subject on a conceptual (though not empirical) basis, believing that social phenomena could be reduced to laws just as natural phenomena could. His ideas influenced John Stuart Mill (who supported him financially for many years), Émile Durkheim, Herbert Spencer, and Edward Burnett Tylor. His most important works are Cours de philosophie positive (6 vol., 1830 – 42) and Système de politique positive (4 vol., 1851 – 54).

For more information on Isidore- Auguste-Marie-François-Xavier Comte, visit Britannica.com.

Comte, Auguste (1798-1857). French thinker; the leading proponent of Positivism, often also regarded as the founder of sociology. Originally a disciple of the comte de Saint-Simon, he elaborated a systematic philosophy of science, expressed in his influential Cours de philosophie positive (1830-42). Comte argued that human understanding of the world was initially religious, supposing supernatural forces; that it advanced to a metaphysical stage, postulating abstract principles; and that it finally acceded to a stage of positive or scientific knowledge, based on an empirical grasp of the relations between observable phenomena. The physical sciences had followed this loi des trois états, and it was now time for the study of society to advance to the third, scientific stage in a ‘social physics’, for which he coined the term ‘sociology’. He elaborated a historical method and a system of general laws constituting the statics and dynamics of society, from which proposals for action could be derived. Following an intense relationship with Clotilde de Vaux, Comte felt that moral and emotional life should also be brought within the positivist framework. As a vehicle for this work, he developed a ‘religion of humanity’, complete with a calendar, liturgy, and institutions, which had some success in Europe and North and South America. Comte's ideas were popularized later in the century by Littré and supported by Taine and Renan, among others.

Positivism may be understood as simply a synonym for Comte's own work, including its more flamboyant social and religious manifestations. However, it has acquired the more enduring meaning of a theory of knowledge, which has informed a large body of work in philosophy, history, and the social sciences. Put simply, it is the view that knowledge depends solely on what can be observed, and on what can legitimately be deduced from observed facts. As against those who argue the importance of prior theoretical constructions, positivism rejects any proposition which cannot be positively verified by experience, or which cannot be proved false by some conceivable empirical event. In this sense, Comte's thought is not wholly consistent with positivism.

[Michael Kelly]

Bibliography

• D. G. Charlton, Positivist Thought in France (1959)
• L. Kolakowski, Positivist Philosophy (1972)

Comte, Auguste (1798-1857) French philosopher and social theorist. Born in Montpellier, France, Comte was educated at the École Polytechnique, and became Secretary to Saint-Simon in 1817; after 1826 he supported himself by teaching mathematics and giving private lectures. He believed that human society goes through stages such as the theological/military, and the scientific/industrial, as well as a transitional or metaphysical stage, which was where he conceived the Europe of his own time to be. He also delineated three stages, the theological, the metaphysical, and the positive, in the evolution of each science. Against the rationalism of Descartes he believed that each science has its own method, and that its development is contingent on the historical level which it has achieved; Comte therefore stands as a figurehead for thinkers who value the historical and empirical study of science above an a priori or rationalistic attempt to dictate the way sciences ought to be. Although Comte is regarded as the founder of positivism, in his hands it had less to do with empiricism, than with a positive, i.e. affirmative, attitude to the study of social relations: it was Comte who coined the term ‘sociology’. After his six-volume Cours de philosophie positive (1830-42, trs. and condensed by Harriet Martineau as The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte, 2 vols., 1853), Comte suffered a nervous breakdown, although he also managed to write the four-volume Système de politique positive (1851-4, trs. as The System of Positive Polity, 1875-7). In his later years he devoted his efforts to establishing a religion of humanity, with a calendar of saints including Adam Smith, Frederick the Great, and himself as Pope.

Quotes:

"Each department of knowledge passes through three stages. The theoretic stage; the theological stage and the metaphysical or abstract stage."

"The dead govern the living."

Auguste Comte

Western Philosophy 19th-century philosophy
Full name	Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte
Born	17 January 1798 Montpellier, France
Died	September 5, 1857 (aged 59) Paris, France
School/tradition	Sociology Positivism
Notable ideas	Law of three stages, Encyclopedic law
Influenced by Adam Smith,Jean-Baptiste Say, William Robertson, David Hume, Marquis de Condorcet, Jean-Jacques Rosseau, John Stuart Mill
Influenced Karl Marx, Michel Houellebecq, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer

Auguste Comte (17 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher, the founder of sociology and positivism.

Comte developed sociologie in an attempt to remedy the social malaise left by the French revolution. The discipline was later formally and academically established by Émile Durkheim. Comte attempted to introduce a cohesive "religion of humanity" which, though largely unsuccessful, was influential in the development of various secular humanist organizations in the 19th century. He also created and defined the term "altruism."^[1]

Contents 1 Life 2 Legacy 3 Three Stages 4 Bibliography 4.1 Works 4.2 Secondary 5 Notes 6 External links

Life

Comte was born at Montpellier, in southern France. After attending the Lycée Joffre^[2] and then the University of Montpellier, one of the oldest European universities, Comte was admitted to the École Polytechnique in Paris. The École Polytechnique was notable for its adherence to the French ideals of republicanism and progress. The École closed in 1816 for reorganization, however, causing Comte to leave and continue his studies at the medical school at Montpellier. When the École Polytechnique reopened, he did not request readmission.

Following his return to Montpellier, Comte soon came to see unbridgeable differences with his Catholic and Monarchist family and set off again for Paris, earning money by small jobs. In August 1817 he became a student and secretary to Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, who brought Comte into contact with intellectual society. In 1824, Comte left Saint-Simon, again because of unbridgeable differences.

Grave of Auguste Comte at Père Lachaise cemetry

Comte now knew what he wanted to do - work out a philosophy of positivism. He published a Plan de travaux scientifiques nécessaires pour réorganiser la société (1822) (Plan of scientific studies necessary for the reorganization of society). But he failed to get an academic post. His day-to-day life depended on sponsors and financial help from friends.

He married Caroline Massin, but divorced in 1842. Before their divorce, he and his wife had a child, Sarah Procario, in 1825. In 1826 he was taken to a mental health hospital, but left without being cured – only stabilized by Massin – so that he could work again on his plan. In the time between this and their divorce, he published the six volumes of his Cours.

From 1844, Comte was involved with Clotilde de Vaux, a relationship that remained platonic. After her death in 1846 this love became quasi-religious, and Comte saw himself as founder and prophet of a new "religion of humanity." He published four volumes of Système de politique positive (1851 - 1854).

He died in Paris on 5 September 1857 and was buried in the famous Cimetière du Père Lachaise. His apartment from 1841-1857 is now conserved as the Maison d'Auguste Comte.

Legacy

Sociology

Portal

General aspects

History · Positivism · Antipositivism Functionalism · Conflict theory Social theory · Critical theory Structure and agency Research · Public sociology

Related fields and subfields

Criminology · Cultural studies Islamic sociology · Media studies Medical sociology · Political sociology Social psychology · Sociobiology Socioeconomics · Sociolinguistics Statistics · Systems theory Sociology of: culture · deviance economics · education · environment ethnic relations · family · gender industry · internet · knowledge law · military · religion · science secularization · stratification

Categories and lists

Journals · Publications · Outline List of sociologists · Index

v • d • e

One universal law that Comte saw at work in all sciences he called the "law of three phases." It is by his statement of this law that he is best known in the English-speaking world; namely, that society has gone through three phases: Theological, Metaphysical, and Scientific.^[3] To the last of these he also gave the name "Positive."

The Theological phase was seen from the perspective of 19th century France as preceding the 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 a supernatural power. Fetishism played a significant role during this time. By the "Metaphysical" phase, he 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 revolution of 1789. This Metaphysical phase involved the justification of universal rights as being on a vauntedly 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 investigation, because people started reasoning and questioning although no solid evidence was laid. The stage of investigation was the beginning of a world that questioned authority and religion. In the Scientific phase, 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 phase 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.

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 Adolphe Quetelet.

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" - 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).^[4] The ambitious—many would say grandiose—way 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 there was 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."^[5]

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"). It was inserted because several of the people involved in the military coup d'état that deposed the monarchy and proclaimed Brazil a republic were followers of the ideas of Comte.^[6]

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."^[7]

He used the word "altruism" to refer to what he believed to be a moral obligation of individuals to serve others and place their interests above one's own. He opposed the idea of individual rights, maintaining that they were not consistent with this supposed ethical obligation (Catechisme Positiviste).

In Comte's lifetime, his work was sometimes viewed skeptically, with perceptions that he had elevated Positivism to a religion and had named himself the Pope of Positivism.

Comte is generally regarded as the first Western sociologist (Ibn Khaldun having preceded him in the East by nearly four centuries). Comte's emphasis on the interconnectedness of social elements was a forerunner of modern 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 and Continuous Quality Improvement where advocates describe a continuous cycle of theory and practice through the four-part cycle of plan, do, check, and act. Despite his advocacy of quantitative analysis, Comte saw a limit in its ability to help explain social phenomena.

Three Stages

Main article: Law of three stages

"The law is this: -that each of our leading conceptions, -each branch of our knowledge, -passes successively through three different theoretical conditions: the Theological, or fictitious; the Metaphysical, or abstract; and the Scientific, or positive." -Comte^[8]

1. Theological Stage
   1. Fetishism
   2. Polytheism
   3. Monotheism
2. Metaphysical or Abstract Stage
3. Positive Stage

Bibliography

Works

• Comte, A.; A general view of positivism [Discours sur l'Esprit positif 1844] London, 1856 Google books
• Comte, A.; Bridges, J.H. (tr.); A General View of Positivism; Trubner and Co., 1865 (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ISBN 9781108000642)
• Comte, A.; Congrev, R. (tr.); The Catechism of Positive Religion; Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co., 1891 (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ISBN 9781108000871)
• Comte, A; Martineatu, H. (tr.); The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte; 2 volumes; Chapman, 1853 (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ISBN 9781108001182)
• Comte, A.; Jones, H.S. (ed.); Comte: Early Political Writings; Cambridge University Press, 1998; ISBN 9780521469234

Secondary

• Henri Gouhier, La vie d'Auguste Comte, Gallimard, 1931 ;
• Jean Delvolvé, Réflexions sur la pensée comtienne, Félix Alcan, 1932 ;
• John Stuart Mill, Auguste Comte and Positivism^[9], Trübner, 1865 ;
• Laurent Fedi, Comte, Les Belles Lettres, 2000, réédition 2005 ;
• Laurent Fedi, L’organicisme de Comte, in Auguste Comte aujourd’hui, M. Bourdeau, J.-F. Braunstein, A. Petit (dir), Kimé, 2003, pp. 111-132 ;
• Laurent Fedi, Auguste Comte, la disjonction de l’idéologie et de l’Etat, Cahiers philosophiques, n°94, 2003, pp. 99-110 ;
• Laurent Fedi, Le monde clos contre l’univers infini : Auguste Comte et les enjeux humains de l’astronomie, La Mazarine, n°13, juin 2000, pp. 12-15 ;
• Laurent Fedi, La contestation du miracle grec chez Auguste Comte, in L’Antiquité grecque au XIXè siècle : un exemplum contesté ?, C. Avlami (dir.), L’Harmattan, 2000, pp. 157-192 ;
• Laurent Fedi, Auguste Comte et la technique, Revue d’histoire des sciences 53/2, 1999, pp. 265-293 ;
• Henri Gouhier, La jeunesse d'Auguste Comte et la formation du positivisme, tome 1 : sous le signe de la liberté, Vrin, 1932 ;
• Henri Gouhier, La jeunesse d'Auguste Comte et la formation du positivisme, tome 2 : Saint-Simon jusqu'à la restauration, Vrin;
• Henri Gouhier, La jeunesse d'Auguste Comte et la formation du positivisme, tome 3 : Auguste Comte et Saint-Simon, Vrin, 1941 ;
• Henri Gouhier, Oeuvres choisies avec introduction et notes, Aubier, 1941 ;
• Georges Canguilhem, « Histoire des religions et histoire des sciences dans la théorie du fétichisme chez Auguste Comte », Études d'histoire et de philosophie des sciences, Vrin, 1968 ;
• H.S. Jones, ed., Comte: Early Political Writings, Cambridge University Press, 1998;
• Angèle Kremer-Marietti, Auguste Comte et la théorie sociale du positivisme, Seghers, 1972 ;
• Angèle Kremer-Marietti, Auguste Comte, la science sociale, Gallimard, 1972 ;
• Angèle Kremer-Marietti, Le projet anthropologique d'Auguste Comte, SEDES, 1980, réédition L'Harmattan, 1999 ;
• Angèle Kremer-Marietti, L'anthropologie positiviste d'Auguste Comte, Lib. Honoré Champion, 1980 ;
• Angèle Kremer-Marietti, Entre le signe et l'histoire. L'anthropologie positiviste d'Auguste Comte, Klincksieck, 1982, réédition L'Harmattan,1999 ;
• Angèle Kremer-Marietti, Le positivisme, Coll."Que sais-je?", PUF, 1982 ;
• Angèle Kremer-Marietti, Le concept de science positive. Ses tenants et ses aboutissants dans les structures anthropologiques du positivisme, Méridiens Klincksieck, 1983 ;
• Angèle Kremer-Marietti, Le positivisme d'Auguste Comte, L'Harmattan, 2006 ;
• Angèle Kremer-Marietti, Auguste Comte et la science politique, in Auguste Comte, Plan des travaux scientifiques nécessaires pour réorganiserla société, L'Harmattan, 2001;
• Angèle Kremer-Marietti, Auguste Comte et l'histoire générale, in Auguste Comte, Sommaire appréciation de l'ensemble du passé moderne, L'Harmattan, 2006 ;
• Angèle Kremer-Marietti, Auguste Comte et la science politique, L'Harmattan, 2007;
• Angèle Kremer-Marietti, Le kaléidoscope épistémologique d'Auguste Comte. Sentiments Images Signes, L'Harmattan, 2007;
• Pierre Macherey, Comte. La philosophie et les sciences, PUF, 1989 ;
• Gertrud Lenzer, Auguste Comte: Essential Writings (1975), New York Harper, Paperback, 1997 ;
• Raquel Capurro, Le positivisme est un culte des morts: Auguste Comte, Epel, 1999 (traduit en français en 2001) : l'étude la plus récente sur la vie d'Auguste Comte, la vision sans complaisance d'une psychanalyste de l'école de Lacan ;
• Auguste Comte, Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte, Part I (1855), translated by Harriet Martineau, Kessinger Publishing, Paperback, 2003 ; Also available from the McMaster Archive for the History of Economic Thought, Volume One Volume Two Volume Three
• Pierre Laffitte (1823-1903): Autour d'un centenaire, in Revue des Sciences et des Techniques en perspective, 2ème série, vol. 8, n°2, 2004, Brepols Publishers, 2005 ;
• Zeïneb Ben Saïd Cherni, Auguste Comte, postérité épistémologique et ralliement des nations, L'Harmattan, 2005 ;
• Mary Pickering, Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography, Cambridge University Press (1993), Paperback, 2006 ;

Notes

The following footnotes may refer to reference works.

1. ^ "Oxford English Dictionary: altruism. 2nd ed. 1989". http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50006618. 
2. ^ "Rencontre avec Annie Petit "Auguste Comte"". Montpellier Agglomeration. 2007-10-19. http://mediatheque.montpellier-agglo.com/22887393/0/fiche___document/&RH=1219250799417. Retrieved 2008-10-15. ""Né à Montpellier, brillant élève du Lycée Joffre..." Translation: "Born in Montpellier, shining student of the Lycée Joffre..."" 
3. ^ In writings of philosophy, some terms are traditionally capitalized when used as the names of major ideas, particularly when those ideas are repeated in the discourse. Such temporary capitalization is rare in other fields.
4. ^ 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, Numéro 15, novembre 2006 : Naissances de la science sociale.
5. ^ 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
6. ^ BRAZIL: Order and Progress, Ronald Hilton, World Association of International Studies Forum Q&A, 4/27/03
7. ^ Comte, A. b (1974 reprint). The positive philosophy of Auguste Comte freely translated and condensed by Harriet Martineau. New York, NY: AMS Press. (Original work published in 1855, New York, NY: Calvin Blanchard, p. 27.b)
8. ^ From The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte (trans. Harriet Martineau; London, 1853), Vol. I, pp. 1
9. ^ John Stuart Mill, Auguste Comte and Positivism at Project Gutenberg

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Auguste Comte

• Auguste Comte quotes
• Auguste Comte at Find a Grave
• Positivist Church of Brazil
• Auguste Comte and Positivism
• The Three Cs and the Notion of Progress: Copernicus, Condorcet, Comte by Caspar J M Hewett
• The positive philosophy, Auguste Comte / freely translated and selected by Harriet Martineau Cornell University Library Historical Monographs Collection. {Reprinted by} Cornell University Library Digital Collections or downloadable version here
• Some selections from first lecture of Course of Positive Philosophy
• Auguste Comte – High Priest of Positivism by Caspar Hewett

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