Principles of Sociology
Auguste Comte Everything in life has a founder or someone who did it first. For example, there was someone who made the first functioning car (Karl Benz), someone who discovered electricity(Benjamin Franklin), and someone who invented the sport of american football(Walter Camp). If Sociology had a founder, it would be considered Auguste Comte. “Comte’s decision to develop successively a philosophy of mathematics, a philosophy of physics, a philosophy of chemistry and a philosophy of biology, makes him the first philosopher of science in the modern sense, and his constant attention to the social dimension of science resonates in many respects with current points of view.”(Bourdeau). The question is, what is Sociology? “Sociology is the study of societies and the social worlds that individuals inhabit within”(TheSociologyProject).
Auguste Comte was born in Montpellier on January 20, 1798. Comte was a very intelligent man. “Having displayed his brilliance in school, he was ranked fourth on the admissions list of the Ecole Poltechnique in Paris in 1814.”(Bourdeau). Throughout his life, he wrote a good amount of texts. “Comte’s most important works are (1) the Course on Positive Philosophy (1830-1842, six volumes, translated and condensed by Harriet Martineau as The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte); (2) the System of Positive Polity, or Treatise on Sociology, Instituting the Religion of Humanity, (1851-1854, four volumes); and (3) the Early Writings (1820-1829), here one can see the influence of Saint-Simon, for whom Comte served as secretary from 1817 to 1824.”(Bourdeau). These three books are considered to be the most important works of Comte, not to say that his other texts are not important. These are just considered to be the most important. I believe that if someone wanted to learn extensively about this philosopher, they should read these three books. They should probably begin with the Early Writings because they were the first of the three. That particular work by Comte would introduce one to the way that Comte thought and what his thought process was at that early age in which he wrote those. This work also shows his intelligence because he began the Early Writings in 1820. He was probably around the age of twenty-two when he began writing the volumes for it. Comte was revolutionary and changed the way people think and view things.
Auguste Comte was very influential. Not only did he begin using the term “sociology”, he contributed in other ways. One of his big theories was his belief in Positivism. “The early works had made a strong impression on some of the best minds of the time; they remain required reading for everyone wishing to understand positive philosophy, as they are still among the best introductions to the subject.” (Bourdeau). To begin to understand what Comte believed in, one needed to understand positivism. “Positivism is an approach to knowledge based on the claim that the only true way to gain knowledge about the world is to use the logic of the natural sciences- by distancing ourselves from what we study, using universal standards to advance truth claims, determining cause and effect, and generalizing from part to whole.” (TheSociologyProject). Comte also believed that language was crucial to his philosophies. “Language, Comte argued, was a dynamic system linking political and domestic life.”(EuropeanGraduateSchool). He believed that language was essential because it is how we communicate. I don’t think that he meant just the way we speak, but also the way that we give off body language. These were two theories that he believed were essential to Sociology. Auguste Comte was considered to be the founder of Sociology. Comte was the first influential philosopher in Sociology. Although all his work wasn’t exactly accepted. He was believed to have two different sides to him. Nonetheless, other philosophers still looked to him as an example. “On the whole, the System was not well received. Almost immediately, Mill and Littre put forward the idea that there was a good Comte, the author of the Course, and a bad Comte, the author of the System.”(Bourdeau). Auguste Comte’s philosophy was clearly limited. One should expect it to be considering he was one of the first to actually dig into Sociology. Auguste Comte passed away on September 5th, 1857. It’s ironic because he thought he could publish the texts that he had announced 35 years before his death, Treatise of Universal Education in 1858, a System of Positive Industry in 1861, and a Treatise of First Philosophy in 1867.
One of Auguste Comte’s biggest contributions to the principles of sociology was that he introduced the idea of revolutionizing. “After his death, Comte’s influence depended more on dissident followers than on orthodox positivists such as Pierre Latiffe in France and Richard Congreve and Frederic Harrison in England.” (Bourdeau). His influence was based more on people who were looking to be defiant or rebel. Another huge contribution he had was the idea of positivism. He believed that positivism was a different way to look at things. He thought that the only way to gain knowledge about the world was to use logic of natural sciences. He believed that to understand things, we needed to observe and determine a few things. Comte was a very difficult person to understand because he was one of the first people to go into the field of Sociology. This paper was a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be for that very same reason. He was a smart individual with different thinking methods and views on things. Auguste Comte passed away on September 5th, 1857.

Works Cited Bourdeau, Michel. "Auguste Comte." Stanford University. Stanford University, 01 Oct. 2008. Web. 04 Aug. 2014. “Auguste Comte - Biography.” Auguste Comte. European Graduate School, n.d. Web. 04 Aug. 2014 Manza, Jeff. The Sociology Project: Introducing the Sociological Imagination. N.p.: n.p., n.d Print.