Understanding Humans: Positivism and Hermeneutics - Positivism - Auguste Comte
3 important questions on Understanding Humans: Positivism and Hermeneutics - Positivism - Auguste Comte
Who was Auguste Comte?
- Auguste Comte (1798-1875) was a French philosopher who adhered to Positivism.
- He lived in a time of political and social instability (French Revolution) and was therefore searching for practically in science.
- This led to Positivism.
- He believed both induction and deduction were necessary for science.
- Made a hierarchy of the sciences, called the Encyclopaedic Formula, where he put the sciences in order from least complex to most complex.
- Sociology being the most complex.
- Defined three fases of intellectual development, where every society has to go through.
- Theological Stage.
- Metaphysical stage.
- Positive stage.
Can you recall what the Encyclopaedic Formula is and explain it?
- A hierarchy of sciences, from least complex to most complex.
- Invented by Auguste Comte (1798-1875).
- The order, from easiest to most complex:
- Mathematics.
- Astronomy.
- Physics.
- Chemistry.
- Biology.
- Sociology.
According to Auguste Comte (1798-1875) each society and science goes through three fases of intellectual development.
What are the three fases and what does each fase entail?
- Theological stage.
- The fase where people supposes that all phenomena are produced by the immediate action of supernatural beings.
- The endpoint of this fase is monotheism.
- Metaphysical stage:
- Supernatural causes of events are dismissed.
- Replaced by abstract entities: essences, natures, forces and powers (like how storm is a power of nature).
- This stage does not lend itself to make predictions or pave the way for scientific discoveries.
- Positive stage:
- The search for absolute knowledge, trying to find laws that can explain and predict phenomena.
- 'Positive' means factual, useful, exact and certain.
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