Skip to main content

Auguste Comte

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Sociological Theory
  • 33 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter will consider five themes related to Auguste Comte’s sociology: Positivism, the Unity of the Scientific Method, Comte’s positive religion, the law of three stages, and Comte’s alleged madness. In the final section, the text will summarize the main criticisms against Comte and those in his favor.

Textbooks of sociological theory have long since expelled Comte. The text will explain which aspects of his thought are still current and why they should still be studied today.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abbagnano, Nicola, and Giovanni Fornero. 1992. Filosofi e filosofie nella storia. Vol. III. Torino: Paravia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aron, Raymond. 1998. Main Currents in Sociological Thought. Vol. 1. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrotta, Pierluigi. 2016. Scienza e democrazia: verità, fatti e valori in una prospettiva pragmatista. Roma: Carocci.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Bonald, Louis. [1800] 2020. Le leggi naturali dell’ordine sociale. Sovranità, governanti e governati. Crotone: D’Ettoris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boudon, Raymond. 2008. Elogio del senso comune. Rinnovare la democrazia nell’era del relativismo. Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre. 2010. Sul concetto di campo in sociologia. Cerulo, Massimo, ed. Roma: Armando.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, Mark B. 2009. Science in Democracy: Expertise, Institutions, and Representation. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Burke, Edmund. 1935. Reflections on the French Revolution and Other Essays. London-New York: M. Dent/E.P. Dutton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cassina, Cristina. 2001. Il bonapartismo o la falsa eccezione. Napoleone III, i francesi e la tradizione illiberale. Roma: Carocci.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2014. Per un lessico del pensiero politico: la “sociocrazia” di Auguste Comte. Storia del pensiero politico 2: 213–238.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charlton, Donald G. 1959. Positivist Thought in France During the Second Empire. Greenwood Westport (CT): Greenwood.

    Google Scholar 

  • Comte, Auguste. [1854] 1858. The Catechism of Positive Religion. Richard Congreve, trans. London: J. Chapman.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. [1851] 1875. System of Positive Polity. Vol. I. London. Longmans, Green and co.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. [1844] 1903. A Discourse on the Positive Spirit. Edward Spencer Beesly, trans. London: W. Reeves.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. [1819–1828] 1969. Opuscoli di filosofia sociale e discorsi sul positivismo. Firenze: Sansoni.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. [1822] 1998. Plan of the Scientific Work Necessary for the Reorganization of Society. H. S. Jones, Trans. In Id., Early Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. [1830–1842] 2000a. Course of Positive Philosophy. Vol. I. Harriet Martineau, trans. Kitchener: Batoche Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. [1830–1842] 2000b. Course of Positive Philosophy. Vol. II. Harriet Martineau, trans. Kitchener: Batoche Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. [1830–1842] 2000c. Course of Positive Philosophy. Vol. III. Harriet Martineau, trans. Kitchener: Batoche Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coser, Lewis A. [1971] 1977. Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cummings, Stephen, Todd Bridgman, and Kenneth G. Brown. 2016. Unfreezing Change as three Steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for Change Management. Human Relations 61 (1): 33–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, Lorne L. 1998. Comprehending Cults: The Sociology of New Religious Movements. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Boni, Claudio. 2003. Storia di un’utopia. La religione dell’umanità di Comte e la sua circolazione nel mondo. Udine: Mimesis.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2005. Comte oggi. Il pensiero politico: rivista di storia delle idee politiche e sociali 38 (2): 279–289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donzelli, Maria. 2003. Critica della democrazia e “sociocrazia” in Auguste Comte. In Patologie della politica. Crisi e critica della democrazia tra Otto e Novecento, ed. Maria Donzelli and Regina Pozzi. Roma: Donzelli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, Émile. [1897] 2013. The Rules of Sociological Method and Selected Texts on Sociology and its Method. Lukes, Steven, Ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elias, Norbert. 1978. What Is Sociology? London: Hutchinson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans-Pritchard, Edwar Evan. 1970. The Sociology of Auguste Comte: An Appreciation. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher, Ronald. 1966. Auguste Comte and the Making of Sociology. London: Athlone Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galanter, Marc. 1989. Cults: Faith, Healing and Coercion. Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gane, Mike. 2006. Auguste Comte. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2016. Journey to “Isidore”: Auguste’s Comte Utopian Method. Revue Européenne des Sciences Sociales 54 (2): 43–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guston, David H. 1993. The Essential Tension in Science and Democracy. Social Epistemology 7 (1): 3–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harp, Gillis. 1995. Positivist Republic: Auguste Comte and the Reconstruction of American Liberalism, 1865–1920. Pennsylvania: Penn State Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartl, Péter, and Adam Tamas Tuboly, eds. 2021. Science, Freedom, Democracy. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayek, Friedrich. 1952. The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies in the Abuse of Reason. Glencoe (IL): The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heilbron, Johan. 1990. Auguste Comte and Modern Epistemology. Sociological Theory 8 (2): 153–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hesse, David Maria. 1996. George Eliot and Auguste Comte. The Influence of Comtean Philosophy on the Novel of George Eliot. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Izzo, Alberto. 1994. Storia del pensiero sociologico. Bologna: il Mulino.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jasanoff, Sheila. 2003. Technologies of Humility: Citizen Participation in Governing Science. Minerva 41 (3): 223–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jonas, Friedrich. 1970. Storia della sociologia. Bari: Laterza.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleinman, Daniel Lee, ed. 2000. Science, Technology and Democracy. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kolakowski, Laszek. 1972. Positivist Philosophy. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacLeod, Roy. 1997. Science and Democracy: Historical Reflections on Present Discontents. Minerva 35 (4): 369–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Maistre, Joseph. [1814] 1847. Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions, Boston: Little and Brown.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manuel, Frank E. 1962. The Prophets of Paris. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martino, Vittorio. 1978. Saint-Simon tra scienza e utopia. Bari: Dedalo.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCauley, Clark, and Sophia Moskalenko. 2017. Friction. How Conflict Radicalizes Them and Us. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Omodeo, Adolfo. 1970. Studi sull’età della restaurazione. La cultura francese nell’età della Restaurazione. Torino: Einaudi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orsini, Alessandro. 2019. Comte, Mill e la nascita del metodo storico-sociologico. Nuova Storia Contemporanea 2: 235–252.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostinelli, Marcello, ed. 2020. Modernità, scienza e democrazia. Roma: Carocci.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pellicani, Luciano. 2003. Revolutionary Apocalypse: Ideological Roots of Terrorism. Westport, Conn: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2008. I rivoluzionari di professione. Milano: Franco Angeli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrin, G. Robert. 1996. Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography Vol. 1 by Mary Pickering. The Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers Canadiens de Sociologie 21 (1): 128–131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickering, Mary. 1993. Auguste Comte. An Intellectual Biography. Vol. I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009a. Auguste Comte. An Intellectual Biography. Vol. II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009b. Auguste Comte. An Intellectual Biography. Vol. III. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Popper, Karl R. 1964. The Poverty of Historicism. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Saint-Simon, Claude Henri. 1824. Catéchisme des industriels. Paris: Impr. de Sétier24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scharff, Robert C. 1995. Comte After Positivism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, Walter M. 1963. European Positivism in the Nineteenth Century. Ithaca (NY): Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turgot, A.-R.-J. [1750] 1973. On Universal History In Turgot on Progress, Sociology and Economics. Three Major Texts Translated, Ronald Meek, ed., 161–118. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wernick, Andrew. 2001. Auguste Comte and the Religion of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wright, Terence R. 1986. The Religion of Humanity: The Impact of Comtean Positivism on Victorian Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Orsini, A. (2024). Auguste Comte. In: Sociological Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52539-1_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52539-1_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-52538-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-52539-1

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics