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The Conservative Reaction
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
Background
• Catholic at the wrong time.
• Opposed to the Revolution.
• Social order paramount.
• Ecole Polytechnique: Military efficiency and
preeminence of science.
• Liked the school.
• Expelled for anti-Enlightenment beliefs.
• Secretary to Saint-Simon (1817).
• Similar beliefs about society.
• Comte preferred more positivist approach.

Background
• Breaks with Saint-Simon (1824).
• Mental breakdown (1826).
• “Cerebral hygiene.”
• Ridiculed in scientific community.
• Death of Clotilde: Emotion over intellect,
feeling over mind.
• “Founder of Universal Religion, Great
Priest of Humanity.”
• The new order: The Positivist Society.

Intellectual Influences
• Social order.
• Science of society.
• Hobbes, Kant, Saint-Simon.
• Empirical approach to society
• Observe structure and function to predict
future events.
• Critical of Enlightenment individualism.

• Pascal: Continuity of history.
• Turgot: Three stages of history.
• Montesquieu: Laws of society.
• Condorcet: Progress through science.
• Use science to understand the laws of society.
• Use science to predict the future of society.
• Apply science to directing society.
• de Bonald and de Maistre: Negative reaction to the
French Revolution: Need to restore order.

• The tradition of order:
• Social contracts did not work.
• Men had duties, not rights.
• Society perfects man.
• The tradition of liberalism
• Laissez faire economics (Adam Smith)
is a system conducive to anarchy.
• Division of labor, on the other hand,
awakens social cooperation.

Concepts and Contributions
• Coined term: Sociology.
• The “social physics” of society.
• Reject metaphysics and theology.
• Science should intervene for the
betterment of society.
• Positivism: study society in the same
manner as the natural sciences:
• Natural laws.
• Objective observation.

• Law of three stages
1. Theological: Rule by religion.
2. Metaphysical: Rule by mystics.
3. Positive: Reason, observation, natural laws
of society that can predict future events.
• Research Methods
1. Observation.
2. Experimentation.
3. Comparison.
4. Historical.

• Social Statics (“anatomy”)
1. Social structure.
2. Unit of observation is individual.
3. Processes that hold society together.
4. Humans must cooperate with one another.
5. Government functions for the benefit of the
whole.
6. Subordination to government is necessary to
achieve consensus.

• Social Statics (“anatomy”)
1. Consensus universalis.
2. Necessary for solidarity.
3. Foundation for the division of labor.
• Importance of the family for maintaining
consensus and social solidarity.

• Social Dynamics (“physiology”)
1. Social change.
2. Progress through science.
3. Change is evolutionary.
4. Dynamic equilibrium of alterations within the
rule of government and social order.
5. Change came about as a result of a need to
refine structure to adapt to new needs in
society.

• Hierarchy of the Sciences
1. Mathematics.*
2. Astronomy.
3. Physics.
4. Biology.
5. Chemistry.
6. Sociology: The queen of the sciences.
• Sociology is the most complex of the
sciences.

• Division of Labor
1. Creates solidarity.
2. Tasks suitable to talents.
3. Parts function for the benefit of the whole.
• Religion of Humanity
1. Religion contributes to social stability.
2. Need to move away from theocracy.
3. Positive religion: Humanistic approach.
4. The “new clergy” were sociologists.

• Race, Class, Women
1. Romanticized the working class.
2. Positivism over communism:
• Positivism focused on morals.
• Positivism encouraged individuality.
• Positivism esteems leaders of industry.
• Positivism encourage inheritance to
provide historical continuity.
3. Women’s “affectional” component was a
critical piece of positivism: order over self.

• Language
1. Binds us to one another.
2. Promotes unity.
3. Allows for interaction.
4. Continuity of traditions.
5. Without language, solidarity, consensus, and
social order would be impossible.

• Theory
1. Necessary for observation.
2. Ideas guide science.
3. Science guides society.
• Organic Analogy
1. Society is like a living organism.
2. The advancement of the organism through
the three stages (for individuals and
societies) is a progression of ideas.

Relevancy
• “Sociology.”
• Functionalism.
• Laws of society.
• Positivism: the importance of scientific methods.
• Social statics and social dynamics.
• Focus on the practical applications of science.
• Focus on macro-structures gives Comte’s
sociology a strong historical perspective.
• Last Line: Focus on his science, ignore his
advocacy as the “Great Priest of Humanity.”

Philosophy
• Realism vs. Idealism
• Realism, because he believed
that society had laws that could
be discovered.
• Realism vs. Nominalism
• Realism, because Comte believed that
abstract ideas, such as “social contract,”
were real in their consequences.

Philosophy
• Idealism vs. Materialism
• Idealist in noting the importance
of language in forming social
relationships.
• Materialist in focus upon the functional
imperatives of society.

Contemporary Issues
• Strong federal government
• Preeminence of scientific over
value-based explanations.
• Separation of church and state.
• Policy guided by values, but not
by blunders.
• Most likely a democrat rather
than a republican.

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