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Auguste Comte and French Positivism

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Auguste Comte and French Positivism
Auguste Comte was born in 1798 and had a significant part in the formation of sociology. Comte was the founder of French positivism. Comte can also be given credit for inventing or coining the term sociology.

Comte was born a Catholic, but somewhere around the age of fourteen, he apparently stopped believing in God. At the same time, he left the ideals of his royalist family behind and became a republican. Comte attended the Ecole Polytechnique which was a leading scientific institution in France at the time. He was kicked out of this school for leading a student protest.

Comte's philosophy of positivism developed from historical studies of the human mind. This led to Comte's views of the three stages of the history of sciences. In order as follows, the stages are:

1) Theological - nature has a will of it's own. This stage is broken down into three stages of its own, including animism, polytheism, and monotheism.

2) Metaphysical state - though substituting ideas for a personal will.

3) Positive - a search for absolute knowledge.

When Auguste Comte claimed to have invented the new science of sociology, he said that it was going to be the science that held all other sciences together. As in the course of Positive Philosophy, he said that a science must depend on the previous science to be understood. It was also in the 47th volume of the book that he changed the name of the social physics to sociology.

When Auguste Comte claimed to have invented the new science of sociology, he said that it was going to be the science that held all other sciences together. As in the course of Positive Philosophy, he said that a science must depend on the previous science to be understood. It was also in the 47th volume of the book that he changed the name of the social physics to

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