COMTE AND POSITIVE SOCIAL THOUGHT
An organized foundation for the field of social thought was not laid
until near the close of the first half of the nineteenth century.
At that time Auguste Comte (1798–1857) gave at least an organized
groundwork, if not a synthetic introduction to sociology. He was
the first to stake out the territory of social thought, to show
the relation of social thought to other fields of knowledge, and
to separate social statics from social dynamics. He was the first
important social philosopher, and his _Positive Philosophy_ the first
treatise roughly to outline the field of sociology.
Auguste Comte invented the term, sociology, by which he meant the
science of human association. While he did not contribute much to
the science itself, he laid important foundation stones. He reacted
against all forms of loose thinking about man, rejected metaphysical
and theological speculations, and insisted upon the observation and
classification of social phenomena. He repudiated attempts to discover
causes of social uniformities, and coined the name, positivism, for the
philosophical system upon which he founded sociology. The bases of
positivism may be found in the ideas of Bacon, Galileo, and Descartes.
As each of these three men broke with tradition and sought observed
facts in their respective fields, so Comte was likewise prompted to do
in the field of social thought.
Auguste Comte was born at Montpelier, France, the son of humble and
law-abiding Catholic parents. At the age of nine he displayed unusual
mental ability, a strong character, and a tendency to defy authority.
He is described as brilliant and recalcitrant. He possessed a wonderful
memory and a remarkable avidity for reading. In school he won many
prizes, and took a position of leadership among his fellow students,
who called him “the philosopher.” At the age of sixteen he was devoting
his energies and abilities to the study of mathematics.
As a youth Comte demanded the resignation of one of his instructors,
criticized Napoleon, and disregarded both ecclesiastical and parental
authority. He especially enjoyed to point out the stupidity of his
superiors and to oppose tyranny.
At the age of nineteen Comte made the acquaintance of Saint Simon, the
well-known socialist. The friendship lasted for only a few years, but
long enough to exert a deep influence upon the youthful mathematician.
Saint Simon (1760–1825) had indicated the need for a scientific
classification of the sciences with political science at the head of
the list, and had developed a new fraternalism under the name of _Le
nouveau Christianisme_. This system was optimistic and humanitarian,
but dreamy. Comte was dissatisfied with it, and undertook to work out a
better scheme of social analysis and organization.
In 1822, Comte’s first important work was published. It contained
an introduction by Saint Simon, and was entitled _A Prospectus of
the Scientific Works Required for the Reorganization of Society_. It
represented an important beginning of the task on which Comte was to
spend his life. Upon the problem Comte read and worked assiduously,
save as he was interrupted by an unhappy married life and by mental
aberrations, due to overwork. He gave courses of public lectures, but
insisted upon working gratuituously. He would not accept royalties
from the sale of his books, despite the fact that he lived continually
on the verge of starvation. His friends, however, made him gifts and
established a subsidy. He insisted upon the rule that all his literary
productions should be given to the public gratuitously.[XIII-1]
His method of composition has been commented upon by his biographers.
As a result of his unusual memory and the high degree of mental
concentration to which he attained, he was able to plan chapters and
volumes in their smallest details, and then from memory to put them
into written form. This method enabled him to secure “an extraordinary
unity of conception and organic symmetry of plan.”
Comte manifested an unusual regard for the truth. This attitude
required him to modify and qualify statements of fundamental principles
at great length. As a result his works are often tedious reading. He
preferred, however, to write meticulously and thus to safeguard truth,
rather than speak in epigrams and sacrifice truth.
Comte’s two leading works are: the _Positive Philosophy_ and the
_Positive Polity_. The first appeared in six volumes during the years
from 1830 to 1842. The second work, in four volumes, was published
in the years from 1851 to 1854. It is not the equal of the _Positive
Philosophy_, which was translated into English in 1853 by Harriet
Martineau.
John Stuart Mill has referred to Comte as among the first of European
thinkers; and, by his institution of a new social science, in some
respects the first.[XIII-2] George Henry Lewes called Comte the
greatest of modern thinkers. John Morley, the English statesman and
author, says of Comte: “Neither Franklin, nor any man that has ever
lived, could surpass him in the heroic tenacity with which, in the
face of a thousand obstacles, he pursued his own ideal of a vocation.”
Harriet Martineau summarizes his methods as follows: “There can be
no question but that his whole career was one of the most intense
concentration of mind, gigantic industry, rigid economy, and singular
punctuality and exactness in all his habits.”[XIII-3]
In laying the foundations for a new social science, Comte began with
an analysis of types of thinking. (1) Primitive and untrained persons
everywhere think in supernatural terms. They suppose that all physical
phenomena are caused by the immediate action of capricious supernatural
beings. The primitive man believes in all kinds of fetishes in
which spirits or supernatural beings live. Fetishism admitted of no
priesthood, because its gods are individual, each residing in fixed
objects.[XIII-4]
As the mind of primitive man became better organized, fetishism
became cumbersome. Too many fetishes produced mental confusion. A
coalescence of gods resulted and polytheism arose. The polytheistic
gods represented different phases of life. This state in human thought
is well illustrated by the Homeric gods.
But a large number of capricious divinities are mentally
unsatisfactory. They create mental contradictions. Consequently,
the gods are arranged in a hierarchy. Finally, the idea of one God,
or of monotheism, developed. The belief arose that every phenomenon
is produced by the immediate action of the one God. As man’s vision
widened and his observations increased in scope and depth, the concept
of a monotheistic universe became clarified. Monotheism is the climax
of the theological stage of thinking.
But rationalism argues that God does not stand directly behind every
phenomenon. Pure reason insists that God is a First Cause or an
Abstract Being. Pure reason speaks in terms of inalienable rights:
metaphysical explanations, however, are unsatisfactory to the mind.
Hence, Comte developed his concept of positivism, which is a purely
intellectual way of looking at the world. Comte held that the mind
should concentrate on the observation and classification of phenomena.
He believed that both theological and metaphysical speculations, as
he used the terms, were as likely to be fiction as truth, and that
there is no way of determining which is the case. Thus it will be more
profitable if the individual should direct his thoughts to the lines
of thinking which are most truly prolific, namely, to observation and
classification of data.
Comte even took the position that it is futile to try to determine
causes. We can observe uniformities, or laws, but it is mere
speculation to assign causes to these uniformities. Positivism deified
observation and classification of data. Its weaknesses should not
hinder the student, however, from seeing the importance of its emphasis
upon the scientific procedure of observing and classifying data in an
age when dogmatism and speculation were rife.
The three stages of thought which Comte described are not three levels
of thought, as Comte contended, but, as Herbert Spencer indicated, they
may represent the same plane of thinking. Each requires about the same
degree of thinking ability. Moreover, as John Fiske argued, the three
methods of approach to problems are often pursued simultaneously by
a given person. Some phenomena are explained theologically; others,
metaphysically; and others, positively.
A second main contribution which Comte made to social thought is that
each of the three modes of thinking determines and corresponds to a
type of social organization. Speaking from the standpoint of his own
religious contacts, he declared that theological thinking leads to a
military and monarchial social organization, with God at the head of
the hierarchy as King of kings and a mighty warrior, and with human
beings arranged in a military organization. Divine sanction rules. As
expressed through the human leaders, this divine sanction must not be
questioned. Dogmatism must be meekly endured, or else its threatened
punishments will be turned loose upon helpless offenders. Divine rights
rule.
Metaphysical thinking produces a government dominated by doctrines of
abstract rights. Natural rights are substituted for divine rights.
A priesthood is furthered. Social organization becomes legalistic,
formal, structural, without adequate content.
Positive thinking produces practical results in the form of industrial
enterprises, and ushers in an industrial age. It inquires into the
nature and utilization of natural forces. It transforms the material
resources of the earth, and produces material inventions.
Comte failed to postulate a fourth mode of thinking, namely, socialized
thinking, or a system of thought which would emphasize not simply
the use of natural forces, but the use of natural forces for social
ends, for the purpose of building constructive, just, and harmonious
societies, and of developing personalities who will evaluate life in
terms of the welfare of other personalities. Comte, however, should be
credited with opening the way for the rise of socialized thinking.
A third phase of Comte’s system was his classification of the sciences,
with sociology as the latest and greatest of the group. The Greek
thinkers, it will be recalled, undertook to classify all knowledge
under three headings: physics, ethics, and politics. Bacon made the
divisions correlative to the so-called mental faculties of memory,
imagination, and reason, namely: history, poetry, and science.
Comte chose as his principle of classifying knowledge, the order of
increasing dependence. He arranged the sciences so that each category
may be grounded on the principal laws of the preceding category, and
serve as a basis for the next ensuing category.[XIII-5] The order,
hence, is one of increasing complexity and decreasing generality. The
most simple phenomena must be the most general--general in the sense
of being everywhere present.[XIII-6]
Comte began with mathematics, the tool of the mind. Accurate thinking
is always done in terms of mathematics. With mathematics as its chief
tool, the mind of man can go anywhere in its thinking. Mathematics
is the most powerful instrument which the mind may use in the
investigation of natural laws.[XIII-7]
Mathematics is not a constituent member of the group of sciences. It is
the basis of them all. It holds the first place in the hierarchy of the
sciences, and is the best point of departure in all education, whether
general or special.[XIII-8] It is the oldest and most perfect of all
the sciences.[XIII-9]
Mathematics is the science which measures precisely the relations
between objects and ideas. It is _the_ science.[XIII-10] The Greeks
had no other. Its definition is the definition of all science. Its
function is that of ascertaining relationships, a process which is
basic to scientific thinking in all fields. Education that is based on
any other method is faulty, inexact, and unreliable. It is only through
mathematics that we can understand science.
The highest form of mathematics is calculus. There is no scientific
inquiry in which calculus is not used. Even the physician in
prescribing for the cure of a disease, must provide for the mixing
together of different quantities of different medicines, so that,
when taken at determined intervals of time, they will possess the
right qualities for bringing the human body back to its normal state.
Calculus is the branch of science which has the highest intellectual
dignity. In it the proportion of reasoning to observation is greater
than elsewhere.
With mathematics as the tool, the classification of knowledge may
proceed. All natural phenomena fall into two grand divisions: inorganic
and organic. The inorganic are more general and should be considered
first. Inorganic phenomena are of two classes: astronomical and
terrestrial. Astronomical phenomena are the most general of all. The
stars and planets appear under the least varied aspects.[XIII-12]
Astronomy is the science by which the movements of the heavenly bodies,
including the earth, are measured. How can we thoroughly understand any
terrestrial phenomena without considering the nature of the earth and
its relation to the other units of the solar system?[XIII-13]
Terrestrial physics includes two fields: physics proper and chemistry.
Material bodies may be regarded in either their physical or chemical
aspects. Physics is more general than chemistry; it deals with masses
rather than elements. Chemical phenomena depend upon the laws of
physics, without being influenced by them in turn. Chemical action is
conditioned by the laws of weight, heat, electricity. The study of
inorganic phenomena thus falls under three scientific heads: astronomy,
physics, and chemistry.
Organic phenomena include two types: individual and group. The first
refers to the function and structure of all individual forms in the
plant and animal worlds. It is general physiology, or, in modern
terms, biology. It involves the study of all life and the general laws
pertaining to the individual units of life.
Biology rests on chemistry, because it is in chemistry that all
reliable knowledge about nutrition or secretion is found. Biology is
indebted to physics for knowledge concerning the weight of, temperature
of, and related facts about living organisms. Biological laws are
partially determined by astronomical factors. If the earth were to
rotate faster than it does, the course of physiological phenomena would
be accelerated, and the length of life would be shortened.[XIII-14]
If the orbit of the earth were to become as eccentric as that of a
comet, changes of a fatal nature would occur to all life on the earth.
If there were no inclination of the earth’s axis, the seasons would
be unknown, and the geographical distribution of living species would
be vastly different from the present situation. All accurate work
in biological studies is mathematical in character. Thus biology,
the science of organic phenomena, is dependent on all the preceding
divisions on the scale of knowledge.
The study of gregarious or associative life is a special field.
Comte called this science social physics, and for it invented the
specific term, sociology. It rests in turn upon biological, chemical,
physical, astronomical knowledge and uses mathematics as its tool.
Comte virtually defines six sciences: mathematics, astronomy, physics,
chemistry, biology, and sociology. He treats of transcendental biology,
which is the basis of modern psychology. Comte urged that no science
could be effectually studied without competent knowledge concerning
the sciences on which it depends. It is necessary not only to have a
general knowledge of all the sciences but that they should be studied
in order--this is Comte’s dictum to the student of sociology. Comte
insisted that one general science could not develop beyond a given
point until the preceding science has passed a given stage.
Each of the six general sciences has passed through the three stages
of thought. Mathematics, which has advanced furthest into the positive
stage, is still connected with superstition, such as that which hovers
round the number 13. The other general sciences are less further along.
Sociology, the latest science to develop, Comte hoped by his works to
push over into the positive stage.
Comte divided sociology, or social physics, into social statics and
social dynamics. Social statics is the study of the laws of action
and reaction of the different parts of the social order, aside for
the time being from the general social movements which are modifying
them.[XIII-15] Social dynamics considers the laws of progress. Social
statics inquires into the laws of co-existence of social phenomena;
social dynamics examines the laws of social succession. Sociology is
the study of social organization and of social progress.
Society is in a state of anarchy. Individuals with the best of purposes
are continually weakening the efforts of each other. Powerful persons
are crushing the weak. The defeated are conniving against the strong.
Why all this social anarchy? To Comte the answer is clear. Behind moral
and social anarchy there is intellectual anarchy. People do not have a
knowledge of the fundamental laws of social order and social progress.
Moreover, people fail to appreciate the necessity of knowledge of
social laws. They are insensible to the value of sound social theory.
They want nothing but the “practical,” unmindful of the fact that the
“practical” is as likely to be based on incorrect social theory as upon
sound social conceptions.
The necessity of fundamental concepts concerning society underlies
social organization. In the absence of these general ideas, there
is “no other daily resource for the maintenance of even a rough and
precarious social order than an appeal, more or less immediate, to
personal interests.”[XIII-16] In the absence of a moral authority, the
material order requires the use of either terror or corruption; the
latter is less inconvenient and more in accordance with the nature
of modern society.[XIII-17] Moreover, politicians and other public
men work against the elaboration of the social theory which is
necessary for the salvation of society. They sneer at the development
of social science. Many of those who occupy the chief political
stations regard with antipathy the true reorganization of society.
Social principles are not even sought. On the other hand, social
charlatanism attracts by the magnificence of its promises and dazzles
by its transient successes. Comte deplored attempts to re-make society
through institutionalism, regardless of social theory. He stressed
the fundamental importance of social principles as the only means
of guaranteeing a correct institutional procedure. As a practical
principle of social adjustment, Comte endorsed the Catholic ideal: In
necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things,
charity.
Comte protested vigorously against materialism. He pointed out that for
three centuries the best minds had been devoted to material science and
had neglected societary problems.[XIII-18] Material institutions should
be modified and made to harmonize with the underlying laws of social
evolution. A moral reorganization of society must precede and direct
the material and political reorganization.[XIII-19]
Social improvement is a result of mental development. This development
favors the preponderance of the noblest human tendencies. Prevision
and science when applied to society will bring out the best phases of
human nature, and thus result in social improvement. Although the lower
instincts will continue to manifest themselves in modified action,
their less sustained exercise will debilitate them by degrees.[XIII-20]
The three chief causes of social variation result from, first, race;
second, climate; and third, political action in its whole scientific
content. The first and second factors cannot be changed greatly, but
the political influences are wide open to modification by social
prevision. In this connection sociology finds its manifestation.
With the development of society, intellectual activity and
gregariousness slowly overcome the preponderance of the affective
over the intellectual phases of life. But even in the best natures
the personally affective elements are more powerful than the social
affections. Real intellectual development, however, will strengthen
man’s empire over his passions, refine his gregariousness, and release
his energies for social activities.
Comte makes the family the social unit. Man cannot live in isolation,
but the family can survive by itself.[XIII-21] The striking
characteristic of domestic organization is its establishment of the
elementary idea of social perpetuity, by directly and irresistibly
connecting the future with the past.[XIII-22] Family life will
always be the school of social life, both for obedience and for
command.[XIII-23] Comte failed to escape the logic of the patriarchal
family life. He did credit women, however, with being superior to men
in the spontaneous expansion of sympathy and sociality, although
inferior in understanding and reason.
The direction of social evolution is toward further development of the
noblest dispositions and the most generous feelings, and away from the
expression of the animal appetites and the material desires.[XIII-24]
The trend is from the satisfaction of the selfish impulses to the
habitual exercise of the social impulses. Happiness depends on the
presence of new stimuli in one’s form of activity. A life of labor that
is full of constructive stimuli is after all the fittest to develop
personality.
Comte was the friend of popular education.[XIII-25] He based his
contention on the invariable homogeneity of the human mind. The minds
of people of all races are potentially similar. All members of the race
are capable of development to a common plane.
In his _Positive Polity_, Comte made important changes in his thinking.
This work was the product of his later years, and shows the effects
of deprivation and struggle. It is inferior in quality to his earlier
treatise on _Positive Philosophy_. It is a question, therefore, how
far his later ideas should be permitted to supersede his thinking
when he was in his prime. In his later thought-life he receded from
his emphasis upon the intellectual nature and stressed the importance
of the affections. He made affection the central point of life and
developed the concept of love. We tire of thinking and even of acting,
he asserted, but we never tire of loving.[XIII-26]
The Comtean ideal became a disinterested love of mankind. Comte
developed a religion of humanity. His contact with Christianity gave
him the belief that it is chiefly ecclesiastical. He did not see in
Christianity a social keynote. Hence, he attempted to create a purely
social religion. He made mankind an end in itself; he failed to see
that human society is probably an outcropping of universal purpose.
If we judge Comte by his own time and age, we shall see the importance
of his contributions to social thought, which were as follows: 1.
There is need for accurate thinking about society. Mathematics is the
best tool for obtaining social accuracy. 2. Comte developed positivism
with its emphasis upon observation and classification of social data.
3. Knowledge has scientific divisions, according to the principles of
increasing dependence and decreasing generality. This scale begins
with mathematics and astronomy, includes physics, chemistry, biology,
in order, and ends with the social sciences, particularly sociology.
4. Sociology deals with the static and dynamic phases of human
association. 5. Comte developed a humanitarian philosophy. 6. Comte
insisted on an intellectual understanding of social processes as the
only true basis for overcoming social anarchy and for solving the
problems of society.