Transcript Comte`s Sociology

Chapter 2:Auguste Comte and
Positivism Sociology
Main points
Biographical Sketch
Law of the Three Stages
Four basic methods
Social Statics and Social Dynamics
A critical assessment
(1798-1857)
Learning
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objectives
After reading this chapter, students should be able to:
1.define Comte's version of positivism, identify his four major
methodologies;
2.identify and define Comte's three stages, as well as the law of
the three stages;
3.discuss Comte's conception of sociology;
4.discuss the intellectual, social, and political context in which
Comte developed his sociology (e.g., the aftermath of the French
Revolution);
5.discuss Comte's notion of order and progress, as well as their
relationship to the law of the three stages;
6.distinguish between social statics and social dynamics;
7.identify the role of the individual in Comte's sociology and
contrast egoism and altruism;
8.discuss Comte's views on the roles of the family, religion, the
division of labor, and language, as well as their effects on
individuals;
9.identify Comte's contributions to contemporary sociology; and
critically assess Comte's work.
Biographical Sketch and Works
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In 1798,Auguste Comte was born in Montpelier,France..
his parents were middle class and his father was a tax collector of the local agent.
In 1812,he became a student of the Ecole Polytechnique(巴黎综合技术学校).but he
and his whole class were dismissed from the School for their rebelliousness and their political ideas
in 1816.
In 1817 he became a secretary and “adopted son” to Claude Henri Saint-Simon .
in 1824 they had a raging out because Comte believed that Saint-Simon wanted to omit his name
from one of his contributions.
In 1825,He married Caroline Massin(卡罗列娜．马森) ,in 1842 they divorced.
In 1826,he was begaining to concoct(编造)the Positivism philosophy scheme.
In 1830,he worked on the six-volume work for which he is best known ,Cours de Philosophic
Positive,which was finally published in its entirety in 1842.
In 1844,he made friendship with a lady named 克洛蒂尔德．
In 1851,he had completed the four-volume Systeme de Politique Positive.
in 1857, he was died.
Law of the Three Stages
 Comte
identified three basic stages and
proceeded to argue that the human mind,
people through the maturation process,
all branches of knowledge, and the
history of the world all pass
successively through these three stages.
 1.The Theological Stage
 2.The Metaphysical Stage
 3.The Positivistic Stage
1.The Theological Stage（before 13c)
 In
this stage ,the human mind is searching
for the essential nature of things,
particularly their origin(where do they
come from?) and their purpose (why do they
exist?).
 What
this comes down to is the search for
absolute knowledge,it is assumed that all
phenomena are created,regulated,and given
their purposes by supernatural forces（超
自然的存在物） or beings(gods).
2.The Metaphysical Stage(13c-18c)
 It
is a transitional stage between the
preceding theological stage and the
ensuing positivistic stage.
 In the metaphysical stage, abstract forces
(抽象力量）replace supernatural beings as
the explanation for the original causes
and purposes of things in the world.
 Mysterious forces such as “nature” are
invoked to explain why things are the way
they are.(认为大自然这样的抽象的力量为万事
万物的基础)
3.The Positivistic Stage( after 18c)
This is the final and most important stage in
Comte’s system. At this stage, people give up
their vain search for original causes or purposes.
people drop such nonscientific ideas as
supernatural beings and mysterious forces.
 In this stage ,people look for the invariable
natural laws that govern all phenomena（获得支配
各种现象的内在规律）．the search for these laws
involves both doing empirical research and
theorizing.
 Comte differentiated between concrete and
abstract laws. concrete laws must come
inductively from empirical research, whereas
abstract laws must be derived deductively from
theory.
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Four basic methods
 Comte
explicitly identified four basic
methods for sociology—four basic ways
of doing social research in order to
gain empirical knowledge of the real
social world.
 The first is the observation
 The second is the experiment
 The third is the comparison
 The forth is the historical research
1.Observation
Observations should be directed by some
theory ,and when made ,they should be
connected to some law.
 Direction observation and indirection
observation
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2.Experiment
 This
method is better suited to the
other sciences than it is to
sociology .it is obviously virtually
impossible to interfere with, and to
attempt to control, social phenomena.
 .direction experiment and the
indirection experiment
3.Comparison
 Three
subtypes.
 First, we can compare humans to lower
animal societies.
 Second, we can compare societies in
different parts of the world.
 Third, we can compare the different
stages of societies over time.
(particularly important)
4.Historical research
 Most
important method in sociology.
 Comte wrote: ”necessity of historical
studies as the foundation of
sociological speculation”
Comte's Sociology
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Comte separated social statics from social dynamics. Social
statics are concerned with the ways in which the parts of a
social system (social structures) interact with one another, as
well as the functional relationships between the parts and to the
social system as a whole. Comte therefore focused his social
statics on the individual, as well as such collective phenomena
as the family, religion, language, and the division of labor.
Comte placed greater emphasis on the study of social
dynamics, or social change. His theory of social dynamics is
founded on the law of the three stages; i.e., the evolution of
society is based on the evolution of mind through the
theological, metaphysical, and positivist stages. He saw social
dynamics as a process of progressive evolution in which people
become cumulatively渐增 more intelligent and in which altruism
eventually triumphs 战胜over egoism. This process is one that
people can modify 改进or accelerate, but in the end the laws of
progressive development dictate强行规定 the development of
society..
Social Statics
 Comte defines the sociological study of social statics as “the investigation
of the laws of action and reaction of the different parts of the social
system”(即暂时不考虑社会系统的基本运动,去研究该系
统的各个组成部分的作用和反作用.)
 In his social statics , Comte was anticipating many of the ideas of later
structural functionalists. deriving his thoughts from biology Comte
developed a perspective on the parts (or structures) of society, the way in
which they function, and their relationship to the larger social system.
Comte also saw the parts and the whole of the social system in a state of
harmony. the idea of harmony was later transformed by structural
functionalists into the concept of equilibrium.
There are three factors in his social statics:
 1.Individual; 2.Family; 3.Social integration
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1.Individual
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Comte sees the individual as imperfect, dominated by “lower”
forms of egoism rather than “higher”, more social forms of
altruism. In fact ,Comte sees this dominance of egoism as
rooted in the brain, which is viewed as having both egoistic
and altruistic regions.
To Comte,the chief problem of human life is the need for
altruism to dominate egoism.
If we are to hope to be able to create a “better” world ,the
selfish motives of individuals must be controlled so that the
altruistic impulsed will emerge.egoism cannot be controlled
from within the individual ,the controls must come from
outside the individual,from society.
Above all ,Comte’s actors are not only egoistic but also weak
and powerless. in a very real sense, people don’t create the
social world;rather ,the social world creates people, at least
those animated by the nobler altruistic motives.
2.Family
The family ,not the individual ,is the building block
of Comte’s sociology ,”the true social unit is
certainly the family”.
 Individuals constitute different(microscopic)
units,and (macroscopic) society cannot be formed
out of them.families are similar,albeit
smaller,macroscopic units ,and therefore they can
be the basis of the larger society.
 The family not only is the building block of society
but also serves to integrate the social;the family is
the “school” of society.thus ,it is the family that
must play a crucial role in the control of egoism
impulses and the emergence of individual altruism.
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3.Social integration
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There are three elements of society that serves to hold people together
 First
is the language.
 Language allows people to interact with one another.and
helps promote unity among people,it connects people not
only with their contemporaries but also with their
predecessors and their successors.
 Second is the division of labor.
 Social solidarity is enhanced in a system in which
individuals are dependent upon others.society should have a
division of labor so that people can occupy the position for
which they qualify on the basis of their ablities and training.
 But he worried about the dangers of excessive specialization
in work .
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is the religion.
Doing a kind of structural-functional analysis, Comte
identifies two major functions of religion.
 One ,it serves to regulate individual life, once again
primarily by subduing egoism and elevating altruism.
 Two, it has the more macroscopic function of fostering
social relationships among people, thereby providing the
basis for the emergence of large-scale social structures
Social Dynamics
A. progress is observable all aspects of
society,physical ,moral,intellectual,political.
B. the intellectual is the most
important,history is dominated by the
development of ideas leaading to changes in
other areas
C. Comte say “correlations“ between basic
intellectual stages of material
development,types of social units,types of
social order,and sentiments
Intellectual phase meterial phase type of social unit type of order
prevailing sentiment
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Theological
military
the family
domestic
attachment依恋
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Metaphysical
legalistic
the state
collective
veneration崇敬
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Positive
industrial
universal
benevolence仁慈
race
Comte's Positive Contributions and Weaknesses
Ritzer and Goodman identify 8 positive contributions
that Comte made to sociology:
 1.Comte coined the term "sociology" and may be viewed
as its founder.
 2.Comte thought of sociology as a positivistic science.
 3.He elaborated four methods of sociology.
 4.He distinguished social statics from social dynamics.
 5.He was a macrosociologist.
 6.He viewed social structures as taming individual egoism.
 7.He offered a dialectical view of structural change.
 8.He attempted to integrate theory and practice.
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Ritzer and Goodman also identify 11 basic weaknesses of Comte's
work:
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1.Comte's thought was distorted by his own experiences in
life.
2.He was out of touch with the real world.
3.He was out of touch with other thinkers of his times.
4.His empirical work is laughable, and his theoretical work
far too generalized.
5.His work is only marginally sociological.
6.He made no original contributions to sociology.
7.His sociology was primitive in its organism — i.e., he
crudely viewed society in terms of the workings of the
human body.
8.Comte heavy-handedly imposed his theoretical frameworks
on the data he was analyzing.
9.His self-conceit led him to make many ridiculous
pronouncements and blunders.
10.His positivist religion is strangely similar to
Catholicism, which casts doubt on his scientific intentions.
11.His plans for the future appear totalitarian and bizarre.
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