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Comte Positivism

The document discusses Comte's theory of the hierarchy of sciences where different sciences progress through stages of development at different rates from most general to most complex. Sociology is considered the highest science as it depends on developments in other sciences and uses historical analysis to study gradual influence between generations.

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Shubhankar Sarma
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28 views1 page

Comte Positivism

The document discusses Comte's theory of the hierarchy of sciences where different sciences progress through stages of development at different rates from most general to most complex. Sociology is considered the highest science as it depends on developments in other sciences and uses historical analysis to study gradual influence between generations.

Uploaded by

Shubhankar Sarma
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Auguste Comte 9

HIERARCHY OF THE
SCIENCES
Comte's second best known
theory, that of the hiçrarchy of the sciences,
is intimately connected with the Law of
Three Stages]Just as mankind
gresses only through determinant pro-
stages, each successive stage building on the
accomplishments ot its
predecessors, so scientific knowledge passes
similar stages ot
development. But different sciences progress at differentthrough
"Any kind ot
knowledge reaches the rates.)
positive stage early in proportion to its
generality, simplicity, and
independence
of other
astronomy, the most general and simple of all naturaldepartments. Hence
In time, it is tollowed by physics, chemistry, biology, sciences, develops first.
and finally, sociology.
Each science in this series depends for its
of its predecessors in a emergence on the prior developments
and decreasing generality/
higrarchy marked by the law of increasing complexity
The social sciences) the
most complex and the-most dependent for their
emergence on the development of all the others, are the "highest"
in the
hierarchy.) "Social science offers the attributes of a completion of the positive
method. All the others . a r e
preparatory to it. Here alone can the general
sense of natural law be
decisively developed, by eliminating forever arbitrary
wills and chimerical entities, in the most difficult case of all.83 Social science
"enjoys all the resources of the anterior sciences"* but, in addition, it uses
the historical method which "investigates, not by comparison,
but by gradual
filiation.5 The chief phenomenon in soçiology.. . that is, the gradual
and continuous infiuence of generations upon each
other-would be disguised
or ynnoticed, for want of the necessary key-historical analysis."
Although sociology has special methodological characteristics that distin
guish it trom its predecessors in the hierarchy, it is also dependent upon them)
It is especially dependent on biology, the science that stands nearest to it in the
hierarchy, What distinguishes biology from all the other natural sciences is its
holistic character. Unlike physics and chemistry, which procçed by isolating
elements,biology proceeds from the study of organic wholes And it is this
emphasis pn organic or organismic unity that sociology.has in common with
biology. There can be no scientific study of society either in its conditions
or its movements, if it is separated into portions, and its divisions are studied
apart.") The only proper approach in sociology consists in "viewing each
element'in the light of the whole system.... Inthe inorganic sciences,the ele
ments are much better known to us than the whole which they constitute: so
that in that case we must proceed from the simple to the compound. But the
reverse method is necessary in the study of Man and Society; Man and Society
as a whole being better known to us, and more accessible subjects of study,
than the parts which constitute them."38s
32 Positive Philosophy, I, p. 6. 33 Positive Philosophy, II, pp. 383-84. 34 1bid. 35Tbid.
36 Positive Philosophy, I, p. 261. 31
Ibid., p. 225.
38
Tbid., pp. 225-26.

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