"Principles of Sociology" was published in four parts from 1876 to
1880. It forms part of a connected series. In "First Principles"
inorganic evolution--that of the stars and of the solar system--was
outlined; organic evolution was dealt with in "Principles of
Biology;" and in the present treatise, "Principles of Sociology,"
we approach super-organic evolution, and are introduced to the
science of society under its Comtist title "Sociology."
Super-organic evolution may be marked off from, organic by taking it to
include all those processes and products which imply the co-ordinated
action of many individuals. Commencing with the development of the
family, sociology has next to describe and explain the rise and
development of political organisation; the evolution of the
ecclesiastical structures and functions; the control embodied in
ceremonial observances; and the relations between the regulative and
operative divisions of every society.
_I.--Domestic_
That evolution decreases the sacrifice of individual life to the life of
the species, we may see on glancing upwards from the microscopic
protozoa, where the brief parental life disappears absolutely in the
lives of the progeny, to the mammalia, where the greatest conciliation
of the interests of the species, the parents and the young, is
displayed. The highest constitution of the family is reached where there
is such conciliation between the needs of the society and those of its
members, old and young, that the mortality between birth and the
reproductive age falls to a minimum, while the lives of adults have
their subordination to the rearing of children reduced to the smallest
possible. The diminution of this subordination takes place in three
ways: First, by elongation of that period which precedes reproduction;
second, by fewer offspring born, as well as by increase of the pleasure
taken in the care of them; and third, by lengthening of the life which
follows cessation of reproduction. Let us bear in mind that the domestic
relations which are ethically the highest, are also biologically and
sociologically the highest.