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Positivism and the study of society
By the end of the 18th century, increased industrialization had brought about radical changes to
traditional society in Europe. At the same time, France was struggling to establish a new social order
in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Some thinkers, such as Adam Smith, had sought to explain
the rapidly changing face of society in economic terms; others, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, did
so in terms of political philosophy. Adam Ferguson had described the social effects of
modernization, but no one had yet offered an explanation of social progress to match the political and
economic theories. Against the background of social uncertainty in France, however, the socialist
philosopher Henri de Saint-Simon attempted to analyze the causes of social change, and how social
order can be achieved. He suggested that there is a pattern to social progress, and that society goes
through a number of different stages. But it was his protégé Auguste Comte who developed this idea
into a comprehensive approach to the study of society on scientific principles, which he initially called “social physics” but later described as “sociology.”
Understand and transform
Comte was a child of the Enlightenment, and his thinking was rooted in the ideals of the Age of
Reason, with its rational, objective focus. The emergence of scientific method during the
Enlightenment influenced Comte’s approach to philosophy. He made a detailed analysis of the natural
sciences and their methodology, then proposed that all branches of knowledge should adopt scientific
principles and base theory on observation. The central argument of Comte’s “positivism” philosophy
is that valid knowledge of anything can only be derived from positive, scientific inquiry. He had seen
the power of science to transform: scientific discoveries had provided the technological advances that
brought about the Industrial Revolution and created the modern world he lived in.
The time had come, he said, for a social science that would not only give us an understanding of the
mechanisms of social order and social change, but also provide us with the means of transforming
society, in the same way that the physical sciences had helped to modify our physical environment. He
considered the study of human society, or sociology, to be the most challenging and complex,
therefore it was the “Queen of sciences.”
Comte’s argument that the scientific study of society was the culmination of progress in our quest
for knowledge was influenced by an idea proposed by Henri de Saint-Simon and is set out as the “law
of three stages.” This states that our understanding of phenomena passes through three phases: a
theological stage, in which a god or gods are cited as the cause of things; a metaphysical stage, in
which explanation is in terms of abstract entities; and a positive stage, in which knowledge is verified
by scientific methods.
Comte’s grand theory of social evolution became an analysis of social progress too—an alternative
to the merely descriptive accounts of societal stages of hunter-gatherer, nomadic, agricultural, and
industrial-commercial. Society in France, Comte suggested, was rooted in the theological stage until
the Enlightenment, and social order was based on rules that were ultimately religious. Following the
revolution in 1789, French society entered a metaphysical stage, becoming ordered according to
secular principles and ideals, especially the rights to liberty and equality. Comte believed that,
recognizing the shortcomings of postrevolutionary society, it now had the possibility of entering the
positive stage, in which social order could be determined scientifically.
Comte identified three stages of progress in human understanding of the world. The theological stage came to an end with the
Enlightenment at the end of the 18th century. Focus then shifted from the divine to the human in a metaphysical stage of rational thought,
from which evolved a final stage in which science provides the explanations.
"Sociology is, then, not an auxiliary of any other science; it is itself a distinct and autonomous science."
Émile Durkheim
A science of society
Comte proposed a framework for the new science of sociology, based on the existing “hard”
sciences. He organized a hierarchy of sciences, arranged logically so that each science contributes to
those following it but not to those preceding it. Beginning with mathematics, the hierarchy ranged
through astronomy, physics, and chemistry to biology. The apex of this ascending order of
“positivity” was sociology. For this reason, Comte felt it was necessary to have a thorough grasp of
the other sciences and their methods before attempting to apply these to the study of society.
Paramount was the principle of verifiability from observation: theories supported by the evidence of
facts. But Comte also recognized that it is necessary to have a hypothesis to guide the direction of
scientific inquiry, and to determine the scope of observation. He divided sociology into two broad
fields of study: “social statics,” the forces that determine social order and hold societies together; and
“social dynamics,” the forces that determine social change. A scientific understanding of these forces
provides the tools to take society into its ultimate, positive stage of social evolution.
Although Comte was not the first to attempt an analysis of human society, he was a pioneer in
establishing that it is capable of being studied scientifically. In addition, his positivist philosophy
offered both an explanation of secular industrial society and the means of achieving social reform.
He believed that just as the sciences have solved real-world problems, sociology—as the final science
and unifier of the other sciences—can be applied to social problems to create a better society.
"From science comes prediction; from prediction comes action."
Auguste Comte
Comte formed his ideas during the chaos that followed the French Revolution, and set them out in his
six-volume Course in Positive Philosophy, the first volume of which appeared in the same year that
France experienced a second revolution in July 1830.
After the overthrow and restoration of monarchy, opinion in France was divided between those who
wanted order and those who demanded progress. Comte believed his positivism offered a third way, a
rational rather than ideological course of action based on an objective study of society.
His theories gained him as many critics as admirers among his contemporaries in France. Some of
his greatest supporters were in Britain, including liberal intellectual John Stuart Mill, who provided
him with financial support to enable him to continue with his project, and Harriet Martineau, who
translated an edited version of his work into English.
Unfortunately, the reputation Comte had built up was tarnished by his later work, in which he
described how positivism could be applied in a political system. An unhappy personal life (a
marriage break-up, depression, and a tragic affair) is often cited as causing a change in his thinking:
from an objective scientific approach that examines society to a subjective and quasi-religious
exposition of how it should be.
The shift in Comte’s work from theory to how it could be put into practice lost him many followers.
Mill and other British thinkers saw his prescriptive application of positivism as almost dictatorial,
and the system of government he advocated as infringing liberty.
By this time, an alternative approach to the scientific study of society had emerged. Against the same
backdrop of social turmoil, Karl Marx offered an analysis of social progress based on the science of
economics, and a model for change based on political action rather than rationalism. It is not difficult
to see why, in a Europe riven by revolutions, Comte’s positivist sociology became eclipsed by the
competing claims of socialism and capitalism. Nevertheless, it was Comte, and to a lesser extent his
mentor Saint-Simon, who first proposed the idea of sociology as a discipline based on scientific
principles rather than mere theorizing. In particular he established a methodology of observation and
theory for the social sciences that was taken directly from the physical sciences. While later
sociologists, notably Émile Durkheim, disagreed with the detail of his positivism and his application
of it, Comte provided them with a solid foundation to work from.
Positivism and the study of society
By the end of the 18th century, increased industrialization had brought about radical changes to
traditional society in Europe. At the same time, France was struggling to establish a new social order
in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Some thinkers, such as Adam Smith, had sought to explain
the rapidly changing face of society in economic terms; others, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, did
so in terms of political philosophy. Adam Ferguson had described the social effects of
modernization, but no one had yet offered an explanation of social progress to match the political and
economic theories. Against the background of social uncertainty in France, however, the socialist
philosopher Henri de Saint-Simon attempted to analyze the causes of social change, and how social
order can be achieved. He suggested that there is a pattern to social progress, and that society goes
through a number of different stages. But it was his protégé Auguste Comte who developed this idea
into a comprehensive approach to the study of society on scientific principles, which he initially called “social physics” but later described as “sociology.”
Understand and transform
Comte was a child of the Enlightenment, and his thinking was rooted in the ideals of the Age of
Reason, with its rational, objective focus. The emergence of scientific method during the
Enlightenment influenced Comte’s approach to philosophy. He made a detailed analysis of the natural
sciences and their methodology, then proposed that all branches of knowledge should adopt scientific
principles and base theory on observation. The central argument of Comte’s “positivism” philosophy
is that valid knowledge of anything can only be derived from positive, scientific inquiry. He had seen
the power of science to transform: scientific discoveries had provided the technological advances that
brought about the Industrial Revolution and created the modern world he lived in.
The time had come, he said, for a social science that would not only give us an understanding of the
mechanisms of social order and social change, but also provide us with the means of transforming
society, in the same way that the physical sciences had helped to modify our physical environment. He
considered the study of human society, or sociology, to be the most challenging and complex,
therefore it was the “Queen of sciences.”
Comte’s argument that the scientific study of society was the culmination of progress in our quest
for knowledge was influenced by an idea proposed by Henri de Saint-Simon and is set out as the “law
of three stages.” This states that our understanding of phenomena passes through three phases: a
theological stage, in which a god or gods are cited as the cause of things; a metaphysical stage, in
which explanation is in terms of abstract entities; and a positive stage, in which knowledge is verified
by scientific methods.
Comte’s grand theory of social evolution became an analysis of social progress too—an alternative
to the merely descriptive accounts of societal stages of hunter-gatherer, nomadic, agricultural, and
industrial-commercial. Society in France, Comte suggested, was rooted in the theological stage until
the Enlightenment, and social order was based on rules that were ultimately religious. Following the
revolution in 1789, French society entered a metaphysical stage, becoming ordered according to
secular principles and ideals, especially the rights to liberty and equality. Comte believed that,
recognizing the shortcomings of postrevolutionary society, it now had the possibility of entering the
positive stage, in which social order could be determined scientifically.
Comte identified three stages of progress in human understanding of the world. The theological stage came to an end with the
Enlightenment at the end of the 18th century. Focus then shifted from the divine to the human in a metaphysical stage of rational thought,
from which evolved a final stage in which science provides the explanations.
"Sociology is, then, not an auxiliary of any other science; it is itself a distinct and autonomous science."
Émile Durkheim
A science of society
Comte proposed a framework for the new science of sociology, based on the existing “hard”
sciences. He organized a hierarchy of sciences, arranged logically so that each science contributes to
those following it but not to those preceding it. Beginning with mathematics, the hierarchy ranged
through astronomy, physics, and chemistry to biology. The apex of this ascending order of
“positivity” was sociology. For this reason, Comte felt it was necessary to have a thorough grasp of
the other sciences and their methods before attempting to apply these to the study of society.
Paramount was the principle of verifiability from observation: theories supported by the evidence of
facts. But Comte also recognized that it is necessary to have a hypothesis to guide the direction of
scientific inquiry, and to determine the scope of observation. He divided sociology into two broad
fields of study: “social statics,” the forces that determine social order and hold societies together; and
“social dynamics,” the forces that determine social change. A scientific understanding of these forces
provides the tools to take society into its ultimate, positive stage of social evolution.
Although Comte was not the first to attempt an analysis of human society, he was a pioneer in
establishing that it is capable of being studied scientifically. In addition, his positivist philosophy
offered both an explanation of secular industrial society and the means of achieving social reform.
He believed that just as the sciences have solved real-world problems, sociology—as the final science
and unifier of the other sciences—can be applied to social problems to create a better society.
"From science comes prediction; from prediction comes action."
Auguste Comte
Comte formed his ideas during the chaos that followed the French Revolution, and set them out in his
six-volume Course in Positive Philosophy, the first volume of which appeared in the same year that
France experienced a second revolution in July 1830.
After the overthrow and restoration of monarchy, opinion in France was divided between those who
wanted order and those who demanded progress. Comte believed his positivism offered a third way, a
rational rather than ideological course of action based on an objective study of society.
His theories gained him as many critics as admirers among his contemporaries in France. Some of
his greatest supporters were in Britain, including liberal intellectual John Stuart Mill, who provided
him with financial support to enable him to continue with his project, and Harriet Martineau, who
translated an edited version of his work into English.
Unfortunately, the reputation Comte had built up was tarnished by his later work, in which he
described how positivism could be applied in a political system. An unhappy personal life (a
marriage break-up, depression, and a tragic affair) is often cited as causing a change in his thinking:
from an objective scientific approach that examines society to a subjective and quasi-religious
exposition of how it should be.
The shift in Comte’s work from theory to how it could be put into practice lost him many followers.
Mill and other British thinkers saw his prescriptive application of positivism as almost dictatorial,
and the system of government he advocated as infringing liberty.
By this time, an alternative approach to the scientific study of society had emerged. Against the same
backdrop of social turmoil, Karl Marx offered an analysis of social progress based on the science of
economics, and a model for change based on political action rather than rationalism. It is not difficult
to see why, in a Europe riven by revolutions, Comte’s positivist sociology became eclipsed by the
competing claims of socialism and capitalism. Nevertheless, it was Comte, and to a lesser extent his
mentor Saint-Simon, who first proposed the idea of sociology as a discipline based on scientific
principles rather than mere theorizing. In particular he established a methodology of observation and
theory for the social sciences that was taken directly from the physical sciences. While later
sociologists, notably Émile Durkheim, disagreed with the detail of his positivism and his application
of it, Comte provided them with a solid foundation to work from.
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