Auguste Comte law of three stages
Auguste Comte:
Auguste Comte (January 17, 1798 – September 5, 1857) was a French thinker known as the “father of sociology.” He developed a philosophy he called “Positivism,” in which he described human society as having developed through three stages, the third of which he called the “positive” stage, dominated by scientific thought. He was the first to apply the scientific method to the social world, and coined the term sociology to describe the scientific study of human society. It was his hope that through such endeavors, an understanding of human society could be achieved that would enable humankind to progress to a higher level, in which the entire human race could function together as one. He also coined the term “altruism,” advocating that people should live for the sake of others. Although Comte’s work appeared to regard the human intellect as the most important in developing the new world order, in his later work, he embraced the concept of love as bringing the solution to all human problems. While Comte’s vision of a new world society brought about through a somewhat mystical form of scientific sociology has not come about, his work provided the foundation for great advances in the understanding of how human society functions. Auguste Comte is famous for his grand universal laws. His aim was to create a science of society, explaining both the historical development and the future direction of humankind. He regarded the study of human society as proceeding in the same way as the study of nature. Thus, he attempted to discover the laws by which human society maintains itself and progresses.
Law of three stages – Auguste Comte
Comte’s task was to discover the sequence through which humankind transformed itself from that of barely different from apes to that of the civilized Europe of his day. Applying his scientific method, Comte produced his “Law of Human Progress” or the “Law of Three Stages,” based on his realization that Phylogeny, the development of human groups or the entire human race, is retraced in ontogeny, the development of the individual human organism. Just as each one of us tends to be a devout believer in childhood, a critical metaphysician in adolescence, and a natural philosopher in manhood, so mankind in its growth has traversed these three major stages.
Thus, Comte stated each department of knowledge passes through three stages. These three stages are the theological, the metaphysical, and the positive, or scientific.
The Theological phase was seen from the perspective of nineteenth century France as preceding the Enlightenment, in which man’s place in society and society’s restrictions upon man were referenced to God. Comte believed all primitive societies went through some period in which life is completely theocentric. In such societies, the family is the prototypical social unit, and priests and military leaders hold sway. From there, societies moved to the Metaphysical phase.
By Metaphysical phase, Comte was not referring to the Metaphysics of Aristotle or any other ancient Greek philosopher. For Comte, metaphysics was rooted in the problems of French society before the revolution of 1789. This “Metaphysical” phase involved the justification of universal rights as being on a higher plane than the authority of any human ruler to countermand, although said rights were not referenced to the sacred beyond mere metaphor. Here, Comte seems to have been an influence for Max Weber‘s theory of democracy in which societies progress towards freedom. Weber wrote of oligarchies having more freedom than tyrannies, and democracies having more freedom than oligarchies. Comte’s belief that universal rights were inevitable seems to be foretelling of Weber’s theory. In this Metaphysical stage, Comte regarded the state as dominant, with churchmen and lawyers in control.
The Scientific or Positive phase came into being after the failure of the revolution and of Napoleon. The purpose of this phase was for people to find solutions to social problems and bring them into force despite the proclamations of “human rights” or prophecy of “the will of God.” In this regard, he was similar to Karl Marx and Jeremy Bentham. For its time, this idea of a Scientific phase was considered progressive, although from a contemporary standpoint it appears derivative of classical physics and academic history. Again, it seems as if Weber coopted Comte’s thinking. Weber believed that humanity was progressing further than ever with science, but believed that this was the downfall of humankind as it loses sight of humanity itself in favor of technical progress. Comte gave the name Positive to the last of these because of the polysemous connotations of the word. Positive can refer both to something definite and to something beneficial. Comte saw sociology as the most scientific field and ultimately as a quasireligious one. In this third stage, which Comte saw as just beginning to emerge, the human race in its entirety becomes the social unit, and government is by industrial administrators and scientific moral guides.
Comte believed this Law of Three Stages to be applicable to societies across the world and throughout time. He regarded the transition from one stage to another to be more of a crisis than a smooth cumulative progress:
“The passage from one social system to another can never be continuous and direct.” In fact, human history is marked by alternative “organic” and “critical” periods. In organic periods, social stability and intellectual harmony prevail, and the various parts of the body social are in equilibrium. In critical periods, in contrast, old certainties are upset, traditions are undermined, and the body social is in fundamental disequilibrium. Such critical periods—and the age in which Comte lived, seemed to him preeminently critical—are profoundly unsettling and perturbing to men thirsting for order. Yet they are the necessary prelude to the inauguration of a new organic state of affairs. “There is always a transitional state of anarchy which lasts for some generations at least; and lasts the longer the more complete is the renovation to be wrought.”
#Law of three stages#The second stage in the law of three stages is#Metaphysical stage example#The theological stage#Auguste Comte law of three stages#Auguste Comte law of three stages#Metaphysical stage in sociology#What is theological stage,law of three stages by auguste comte