Auguste - University of Kashmir



Auguste Comte:Auguste Comte (1798–1857) is the founder of positivism, a philosophical and political movement which enjoyed a very wide diffusion in the second half of the nineteenth century. It sank into an almost complete oblivion during the twentieth, when it was eclipsed by neo-positivism. However, Comte’s decision to develop successively a philosophy of mathematics, a philosophy of physics, a philosophy of chemistry and a philosophy of biology, makes him the first philosopher of science in the modern sense, and his constant attention to the social dimension of science resonates in many respects with current points of view. His political philosophy, on the other hand, is even less known, because it differs substantially from the classical political philosophy we have te’s most important works are (1) the?Course on Positive Philosophy?(1830–1842, six volumes, translated and condensed by Harriet Martineau as?The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte); (2) the?System of Positive Polity, or Treatise on Sociology, Instituting the Religion of Humanity, (1851–1854, four volumes); and (3) the?Early Writings?(1820–1829), where one can see the influence of Saint-Simon, for whom Comte served as secretary from 1817 to 1824. The?Early Writings?are still the best introduction to Comte’s thought. In the?Course, Comte said, science was transformed into philosophy; in the?System, philosophy was transformed into religion. The second transformation met with strong opposition; as a result, it has become customary to distinguish, with Mill, between a “good Comte” (the author of the?Course) and a “bad Comte” (the author of the?System). Today’s common conception of positivism corresponds mainly to what can be found in the?Course.As said in its first lesson, the?Course?pursues two goals. The first, a specific one, is a foundation for sociology, then called ‘social physics’. The second, a general goal, is the coordination of the whole of positive knowledge. The structure of the work reflects this duality: the first three volumes examine the five fundamental sciences then in existence (mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology), and the final three volumes deal with the social sciences. Executing the two parts did not require the same amount of work. In the first case, the sciences had already been formed and it was just a matter of summarizing their main doctrinal and methodological points. In the other case, however, all was still to be done, and Comte was well aware that he was founding a new science.Law of Three StagesThe?law of three stages?is an idea developed by Auguste?Comte?in his work The Course in Positive Philosophy. It states that society as a whole, and each particular science, develops through?three?mentally conceived?stages: (1) the theological?stage, (2) the metaphysical?stage, and (3) the positive?stage.The Law of three stages is the corner stone of Auguste Comte’s approach. Comte’s ideas relating to the law of three stages reveal that man is becoming more and more rational and scientific in his approach by gradually giving up speculations, imagination etc. He has shown that there is a close association between intellectual evolution and social progress. The law of three stages is the three stages of mental and social development. It is the co-ordination of feeling, thought and action in individuals and society. There are three important aspects of our nature. Such as our feelings, our thought and our actions.Our feelings:The emotions and impulses which prompt us.ADVERTISEMENTS:Our thought:Which are undertaken in the service of our feelings but also helps to govern them.Our actions:Which are undertaken in the service of our feelings and thought. For the continuity and existence of society there must be some order of institutions, values, beliefs and knowledge which can successfully co-relate the feelings, thought and activity of its members. In the history of mankind—during which the social order bringing these elements into relation with each other has been worked out—three types of solution, three stages of development can be distinguished.ADVERTISEMENTS:According to Comte, each of our leading conceptions-each branch of our knowledge passes successively through different theoretical conditions:1. The Theological or fictitious,2. The Metaphysical or abstract,3. The Scientific or te considered his law of Three stages based upon belief in social evolution to be the most important. There has been an evolution in the human thinking, so that each succeeding stage is superior to and more evolved than the preceding stage. It can hardly be questioned that Comte’s law of three stages has a strong mentalist or idealistic bias. He co-related each mental age of mankind with its characteristic accompanying social organisation and type of political dominance. This law appeared in, the year 1822 in his book Positive Philosophy.The Theological or Fictitious stage:The theological stage is the first and it characterised the world prior to 1300. Here all theoretical conceptions, whether general or special bear a supernatural impress. At this level of thinking there is a marked lack of logical and orderly thinking. Overall the theological thinking implies belief in super natural power.This type of thinking is found among the primitive races. In theological stage, all natural phenomena and social events were explained in terms of super natural forces and deities, which ultimately explaining everything as the product of God’s will. This stage is dominated by priests and ruled by military men.Human mind is dominated by sentiments, feelings and emotions. Every phenomenon was believed to be the result of immediate actions of super-natural beings. Explanations take the form of myths concerning spirits and super natural beings.Man seeks the essential nature of all beings, first and final causes, origins and purposes of all effects and the overriding belief that all things are caused by super natural beings. Theology means discourse in religion. Religion dominates in this state of development. This state is characterised by conquest. The theological—military society was basically dying. Priests were endowed with intellectual and spiritual power, while military exercised temporal authority.It has three sub-stages: (i)?Fetishism:‘Fetish’ means inanimate and ‘ism’ means philosophy. This is a philosophy which believes that super natural power dwells in inanimate object. Fetishism as a form of religion started which admitted of no priesthood. When everything in nature is thought to be imbued with life analogous to our own, pieces of wood, stone, skull etc. are believed to be the dwelling place of super natural powers, as these objects are believed to possess divine power. But too many fetishes created confusion for people. Hence they started believing in several gods. Thus arose polytheism.(ii)?Polytheism:‘Poly’ means many. So the belief in many Gods is called polytheism. Human being received variety or diversity of natural phenomena. Each phenomenon was kept under the disposal of one God. One God was believed to be in charge of one particular natural phenomenon. In polytheism, there is an unrestrained imagination person the world with innumerable Gods and spirits. People created the class of priests to get the goodwill and the blessings of these gods. The presence of too many gods also created for them mental contradictions. Finally they developed the idea of one God, i.e. monotheism.(iii) Monotheism:It means belief in one single God. He is all in all. He controls everything in this world. He is the maker of human destiny. Monotheism is the climax of the theological stage of thinking. The monotheistic thinking symbolizes the victory of human intellect and reason over non-intellectual and irrational thinking. Slowly feelings and imaginations started giving place to thinking and rationality. In monotheism a simplification of many gods into one God takes place, largely in the service of awakening reason, which qualifies and exercises constraint upon the imagination.In theological stage, soldiers, kings, priests etc. were given respect in the society. Everything was considered in terms of family welfare. Love and affection bonded the members of a family together. In this stage social organisation is predominantly of a military nature. It is the military power which provides the basis of social stability and conquest which enlarges the bounds of social life.(a) Progress is observable in all aspects of society: physical, moral, intellectual and political.(b) The intellectual is the most important. History is dominated by the development of ideas leading to changes in other areas.(c) Auguste Comte says on the “Co-relations” between basic intellectual stages and stages of material development, types of social units, types of social order and sentiments.Metaphysical or Abstract Stage:The metaphysical stage started about 1300 A.D. and was short lived roughly till 1800. It forms a link and is mongrel and transitional. It is almost an extension of theological thinking. It corresponds very roughly to the middle Ages and Renaissance.It was under the sway of churchmen and lawyers. This stage was characterised by Defence. Here mind pre-supposes abstract forces. ‘Meta’ means beyond and physical means material world. Supernatural being is replaced by supernatural force. This is in form of essences, ideas and forms. Rationalism started growing instead of imagination.Rationalism states that God does not stand directly behind every phenomenon. Pure reasoning insists that God is an Abstract being. Under metaphysical thinking it is believed that an abstract power or force guides and determines the events in the world. Metaphysical thinking discards belief in concrete God. It is characterised by the dominance of “ratiocination.”In metaphysical stage speculative thought is unchecked by any other principle. Human body was considered to be the spark of divinity. This kind of thinking corresponded with the legal type of society; and law, lawyers and churchmen dominated the society. Law remained under the control of the state.The Positive or Scientific?stage:Finally in 1800 the world entered the positivistic stage. The positive stage represents the scientific way of thinking. Positive thought ushers in an industrial age. The positive or scientific knowledge is based upon facts and these facts are gathered by observation and experience. All phenomena are seen as subject to natural laws that can be investigated by observations and experimentation.The dawn of the 19th Century marked the beginning of the positive stage in which observation predominates over imagination. All theoretical concepts have become positive. The concept of God is totally vanished from human mind. Human mind tries to establish cause and affect relationship. Mind is actually in search of final and ultimate cause.The scientific thinking is thoroughly rational and there is no place for any belief or superstition in it. This stage is governed by industrial administrators and scientific moral guides. At this stage of thought, men reject all supposed explanations in terms either of Gods or essences as useless.They cease to seek ‘original causes’ or ‘final ends’. This stage is dominated by the entrepreneurs, technologists etc. Unit of society was confined to the mankind as a whole, vision of mind was broad and there is no parochial feeling. Kindness, sympathy etc. to the cause of humanity prevailed.This is the ultimate stage in a series of successive transformations. The new system is built upon the destruction of the old; with evolution, come progress and emancipation of human mind. Human history is the history of a single man, Comte, because the progress of the man mind gives unity to the entire history of society. For Comte, all knowledge is inescapably human knowledge; a systematic ordering of propositions concerning our human experience of the world.Corresponding to the three stages of mental progress; Comte identified two major types of societies. The theological-military society which was dying, the scientific-industrial society which was being born during his life time. Here the main stress is on the transformation of the material resources of the earth for human benefit and the production of material inventions. In this positive or scientific stage the great thought blends itself with great power.Criticisms:Comte’s law of three stages have been criticized by different philosophers and sociologists.(i) According to Bogardus, Comte failed to postulate a fourth mode of thinking, i.e. socialized thinking, a system of thought which would emphasize the purpose of building the constructive, just and harmonious societies. Bogardus also says, Comte however, should be credited with opening the way for rise of socialized thinking.(ii) According to Prof. N.S. Timasheff, Comte’s law of three stages could not stand the test of facts. He opines, “Neither the later approaches (metaphysical and scientific) wholly supersedes the religious approach; rather there has been accumulation and often admixture of the three”.(iii) C.E. Vaughan has said, “But its foundation is purely negative and destructive. It is powerless to construct and when credited with the ability to do so, it brings forth nothing but anarchy and bloodshed.”The structure of the?Course?explains why the law of the three stages (which is often the only thing known about Comte) is stated twice. Properly speaking, the law belongs to dynamic sociology or theory of social progress, and this is why it serves as an introduction to the long history lessons in the fifth and sixth volumes. But it equally serves as an introduction to the work as a whole, to the extent that its author considers this law the best way to explain what positive philosophy is.The law states that, in its development, humanity passes through three successive stages: the theological, the metaphysical, and the positive. The first is the necessary starting point for the human mind; the last, its normal state; the second is but a transitory stage that makes possible the passage from the first to the last. In the theological stage, the human mind, in its search for the primary and final causes of phenomena, explains the apparent anomalies in the universe as interventions of supernatural agents. The second stage is only a simple modification of the first: the questions remain the same, but in the answers supernatural agents are replaced by abstract entities. In the positive state, the mind stops looking for causes of phenomena, and limits itself strictly to laws governing them; likewise, absolute notions are replaced by relative ones. Moreover, if one considers material development, the theological stage may also be called military, and the positive stage industrial; the metaphysical stage corresponds to a supremacy of the lawyers and jurists.This relativism of the third stage is the most characteristic property of positivism. It is often mistakenly identified with scepticism, but our earlier remark about dogmatism prevents us from doing so.For Comte, science is a “connaissance approchée”: it comes closer and closer to truth, without reaching it. There is no place for absolute truth, but neither are there higher standards for the fixation of belief. Comte is here quite close to Peirce in his famous 1877 paper.The law of the three stages belongs to those grand philosophies of history elaborated in the 19th century, which now seem quite alien to us (for a different opinion, see Schmaus (1982)). The idea of progress of Humanity appears to us as the expression of an optimism that the events of the 20th century have done much to reduce (Bourdeau 2006). More generally, the notion of a law of history is problematic (even though it did not seem so to Mill (1842, bk.?VI, chap.?X)). Already Durkheim felt forced to exclude social dynamics from sociology, in order to give it a truly scientific status.These difficulties, however, are far from fatal to this aspect of Comte’s thought. Putting aside the fact that the idea of moral progress is slowly regaining some support, it is possible to interpret the three stages as forms of the mind that co-exist whose relative importance varies in time. This interpretation seems to be offered by Comte himself, who gives several examples of it in his history lessons. The germs of positivity were present from the beginning of the theological stage; with Descartes, the whole of natural philosophy reaches the positive stage, while moral philosophy remains in the metaphysical stage (1830 (58), v.?2, 714–715).PositivismPositivism, in?Western philosophy, generally, any system that confines itself to the data of experience and excludes?a priori?or? HYPERLINK "" metaphysicalspeculations. More narrowly, the term designates the thought of the French philosopher? HYPERLINK "" Auguste Comte?(1798–1857).Auguste Comte?was the first to develop the concept of "sociology." He definedsociology?as a positive science.?Positivism?is the search for "invariant laws of the natural and social world."?Comte?identified three basic methods for discovering these invariant laws, observation, experimentation, and comparison.As a philosophical?ideology?and movement, positivism first assumed its distinctive features in the work of?Comte, who also named and systematized the?science?of?sociology. It then developed through several stages known by various names, such as empiriocriticism,?logical positivism, and logical?empiricism, finally merging, in the mid-20th century, into the already existing tradition known as?analytic philosophy.The basic affirmations of positivism are (1) that all?knowledge?regarding matters of fact is based on the “positive” data of experience and (2) that beyond the realm of fact is that of pure?logic?and pure?mathematics. Those two?disciplines?were already recognized by the 18th-century Scottish empiricist and?skeptic?David Hume?as concerned merely with the “relations of ideas,” and, in a later phase of positivism, they were classified as purely formal sciences. On the negative and critical side, the positivists became noted for their repudiation of?metaphysics—i.e., of speculation regarding the nature of?reality?that radically goes beyond any possible?evidence?that could either support or refute such “transcendent” knowledge claims. In its basic ideological posture, positivism is thus worldly,?secular, antitheological, and antimetaphysical. Strict? HYPERLINK "" adherenceto the testimony of observation and experience is the all-important?imperative?of positivism. That imperative was reflected also in the contributions by positivists to?ethics?and?moral?philosophy, which were generally?utilitarian?to the extent that something like “the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people” was their?ethical?maxim. It is notable, in this connection, that Comte was the founder of a short-lived?religion, in which the object of worship was not the deity of the monotheistic faiths but humanity.There are distinct anticipations of positivism in ancient philosophy. Although the relationship of?Protagoras—a 5th-century-BCE?Sophist—for example, to later positivistic thought was only a distant one, there was a much more pronounced similarity in the classical skeptic? HYPERLINK "" Sextus Empiricus, who lived at the turn of the 3rd century?CE, and in?Pierre Bayle, his 17th-century reviver. Moreover, the?medieval? HYPERLINK "" nominalistWilliam of Ockham?had clear?affinities?with modern positivism. An 18th-century forerunner who had much in common with the positivistic anti-metaphysics of the following century was the German thinker?Georg Lichtenberg.The proximate roots of positivism, however, clearly lie in the French?Enlightenment, which stressed the clear light of?reason, and in 18th-century British empiricism, particularly that of Hume and of Bishop?George Berkeley, which stressed the role of sense experience. Comte was influenced specifically by the Enlightenment? HYPERLINK "" Encyclopaedists?(such as?Denis Diderot,?Jean d’Alembert, and others) and, especially in his social thinking, was decisively influenced by the founder of French?socialism,?Claude-Henri, comte de Saint-Simon, whose?disciple?he had been in his early years and from whom the very?designation?positivism?te’s positivism was posited on the assertion of a so-called law of the three phases (or stages) of?intellectual?development. There is a parallel, as Comte saw it, between the evolution of thought patterns in the entire?history?of humankind, on the one hand, and in the history of an individual’s development from infancy to adulthood, on the other. In the first, or so-called?theological, stage, natural phenomena are explained as the results of supernatural or divine powers. It matters not whether the?religion?is?polytheistic?or?monotheistic; in either case, miraculous powers or wills are believed to produce the observed events. This stage was criticized by Comte as?anthropomorphic—i.e., as resting on all-too-human?analogies. Generally, animistic explanations—made in terms of the volitions of soul-like beings operating behind the appearances—are rejected as primitive projections of unverifiable entities.The second phase, called metaphysical, is in some cases merely a depersonalized theology: the observable processes of nature are assumed to arise from impersonal powers, occult qualities, vital forces, or?entelechies?(internal perfecting principles). In other instances, the realm of observable facts is considered as an imperfect copy or imitation of eternal ideas, as in?Plato’s?metaphysics?of pure?forms. Again, Comte charged that no genuine explanations result; questions concerning ultimate reality, first causes, or absolute beginnings are thus declared to be absolutely unanswerable. The metaphysical quest can lead only to the conclusion expressed by the German biologist and physiologist?Emil du Bois-Reymond: “Ignoramus et ignorabimus” (Latin: “We are and shall be ignorant”). It is a deception through verbal devices and the fruitless rendering of?concepts?as real things.The sort of fruitfulness that it lacks can be achieved only in the third phase, the?scientific, or “positive,” phase—hence the title of Comte’s magnum opus:? HYPERLINK "" Cours de philosophie positive?(1830–42)—because it claims to be concerned only with positive facts. The task of the sciences, and of knowledge in general, is to study the facts and regularities of nature and society and to formulate the regularities as (descriptive)?laws; explanations of phenomena can consist in no more than the subsuming of special cases under general laws. Humankind reached full maturity of thought only after abandoning the pseudoexplanations of the theological and metaphysical phases and substituting an unrestricted adherence to?scientific method.In his three stages Comte combined what he considered to be an account of the historical order of development with a logical analysis of the leveled structure of the sciences. By arranging the six basic and pure sciences one upon the other in a pyramid, Comte prepared the way for logical positivism to “reduce” each level to the one below it. He placed at the fundamental level the science that does not presuppose any other sciences—viz., mathematics—and then ordered the levels above it in such a way that each science depends upon, and makes use of, the sciences below it on the scale: thus,?arithmetic?and the?theory of numbers?are declared to be presuppositions for?geometry?and?mechanics,?astronomy,?physics,?chemistry,?biology?(including?physiology), and?sociology. Each higher-level science, in turn, adds to the knowledge content of the science or sciences on the levels below, thus enriching this content by successive specialization.?Psychology, which was not founded as a formal?discipline?until the late 19th century, was not included in Comte’s system of the sciences. Anticipating some ideas of 20th-century? HYPERLINK "" behaviourism?and? HYPERLINK "" physicalism, Comte assumed that psychology, such as it was in his day, should become a branch of biology (especially of?brain?neurophysiology), on the one hand, and of sociology, on the other. As the “father” of sociology, Comte maintained that the?social sciences?should proceed from observations to general laws, very much as (in his view) physics and chemistry do. He was skeptical of?introspection?in psychology, being convinced that in attending to one’s own mental states, these states would be irretrievably altered and distorted. In thus insisting on the necessity of objective observation, he was close to the basic principle of the?methodology?of 20th-century behaviourism.Among Comte’s?disciples?or sympathizers were? HYPERLINK "" Cesare Lombroso, an Italian?psychiatrist?and?criminologist, and?Paul-Emile Littré,?J.-E. Renan, and Louis Weber.Despite some basic disagreements with Comte, the 19th-century English philosopher?John Stuart Mill, also a logician and?economist, must be regarded as one of the outstanding positivists of his century. In his?System of Logic?(1843), he developed a thoroughly empiricist?theory of knowledge?and of scientific reasoning, going even so far as to regard logic and mathematics as?empirical?(though very general) sciences. The broadly?synthetic?philosopher?Herbert Spencer, author of a doctrine of the “unknowable” and of a general evolutionary philosophy, was, next to Mill, an outstanding exponent of a positivistic orientation. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download