Early Social Thinkers

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Early Social Thinkers

• Auguste Comte
• (1798 1857)

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Auguste Comte

• French philosopher (1798-1857), considered to the
  founder of sociology
• He coined the term sociology to describe a new
  science a science that would study society

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Comtes influences

• He was influenced greatly by his mentor, Count
  Henri de Saint-Simon
• Comte sought to use the methods of the natural
  sciences by applying them to the study of society
• He envisioned a new society where intellectuals
  (such as himself) would become the new leaders
• He believed that the new science of sociology
  would play an important role in the
  re-organization of society

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Comtes philosophy

• Comtes philosophy is known as positivism
• Positivism is the belief that the world can best
  be understood through scientific inquiry
• Comte believed that science was the key to
  attaining knowledge, not religion
• His positivism had 2 dimensions
• Methodological the application of scientific
  knowledge to both physical and social phenomena
• Social and political the use of such knowledge
  to predict the likely results of different
  policies so that the best one could be chosen

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Comtes philosophy

• Comte believed that human thought / knowledge
  passed through stages as societies became more
  complex
• Theological stage explanations are based upon
  religion and the supernatural
• Metaphysical stage explanations are based on
  abstract philosophical speculation
• Scientific (or positive) stage explanations are
  based on systematic observation, experimentation,
  comparison and historical analysis

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Comtes legacy

• Comtes philosophy regarding the objective,
  systematic study of society are deeply embedded
  in sociology
• His theory that societies contain social statics
  (forces for social order and stability) and
  social dynamics (forces for conflict and change)
  are still used in contemporary sociology
• He also made insightful connections between the
  different structures of society (family,
  government, religion, etc.)

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Criticisms of Comte

• Comte has been criticized for over-emphasizing
  the use of the science as a means of analyzing
  society
• Some also say that he was in fact neither
  objective or scientific in his studies, because
  he focused more on a privileged segment of
  society
• They claim that he excluded people of different
  class, gender, sex, gender, race, ethnicity and
  age