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Unit-2: August Comte : Intellectual Background

2.1 subject matter notes

Premier among the thinkers of the 19 century, Auguste Comte was born in Montpellier in a Catholic
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family in 19 January, 1798 in France. His father was a high official in the Revenue Department. From
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childhood itself, two characteristics were noticed in his personality – firstly his been intellectual quality,
and secondly his rebellious nature against established systems. His parents were completely loyal to
the being but Comte was a republican. His parents were devout Catholics, while Comte was a bitter
critic of the Catholic Church. He was firstly educated in his native town; after that he was admitted to
a polytechnique school in Paris. There he soon became popular among the students due to his above
mentioned character traits, especially after he took active participation in the movement to remove a
professor. Hardly, thirteen, he gave up his family’s political and religious beliefs. At the age of 14, he
wanted to restructure society, and by the age of 16, he gave lectures in mathematics. In various ways,
he proved that he was no ordinary person, but a fearless independent thinker.
During his school days, Comte was very impressed by Benjamin Franklin. He considered him an
ideal man, and wished to follow in his footstep. Once he wrote to his friend, “ not just his intellectual
qualities, but also his lifestyle. Do you know that Comte said about Franklin that when he was 25 yrs.
old, he thought himself as a complete intellectual person. Comte too held such views about himself,
even though he was then only 20 yrs old.”
Hardly 20, he was fortunate to come into contact with the premier philosopher of the times, St. Simon.
Their close relationship lasted from 1818 to 1824. It is said that the ideas of St. Simon had a deep effect
on Comte, and many ideas find place in the writings of Comte in changed and transformed forms
were born in the mind of St. Simon. But Comte was just a follower of St. Simon, may not be correct.
Despite that, according of Viscount Marley, Comtist ideology owes much to St. Simon. First by that
in the sciences, scientific classification is of utmost importance, and secondaly philosophy’s main
aim should be social; and social thinkers right objectives should be ethical and religious and political
systems restructuring. But this does not mean that Comte’s complete ideology was influenced by St.
Simon; nor that Comte’s great intellectual successes were possible due only to St. Simon. It is clear,
that the reason was that St. Simon’s ideas were not chronological, while Comte in his thought process
gave importance to, evidence, factuality, clarity, logical reasoning and debate.
Some scholars claim that Comte’s tests lacked the unity of life. Many people exist, who welcomed
Comte’s whole heartedly ‘Positive Philosophy’, but criticized ‘Positive Polity’. As it has been said
earlier, John Stuart Mills undoubtedly believed that the beginnings of the destruction of Comtes extra
ordinary talents and abilities started after the writing of this first volume. In other words Comte could
not hold on to the scientific position in ‘positive polity’, on which he based his ‘Positive Philosophy’.
But Comte himself opposed this view. He claims that in his complete ideologies, there is no gulf, nor
does he lack unity. According to him there was one objective behind the writing of the texts, Philosophy
and Polity. The foundation was laid in the 1 texts, Philosophy and Policy. The foundation was laid
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in the 1 text, and the real building work done in the next. Comte claims that it was his objective
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right from the beginning to search for a new ‘Spiritual Force’. To succesfully fulfil his ‘Social Aim’
intellectual preparations were absolutely necessary. Therefore in his ‘Positive Philosophy’ he firstly
collected materials related to different sciences and presented their utility in an expansive description
and thus laid an institutional foundation for behaviorial utility. Thus according to Comte, these two
texts are not different from one another, but complete each other.
Most scholars who have studied his texts carefully are agreed on his soul–searching. In this relation,
the names of Professor Levy - Bruhaw, Hawkings Warns and Bicker should be especially mentioned.
Warns and Bicker believe that in positive philosophy theoretic reasoning is described expansively, and
that factual or scientific basis for the creation of a friendly state is based on behavioural attempts and
that these ideas are expressed in a class form. According to these scholars positive Polity is without
doubt a boring and unimpressive text. Inspite of that in comparison to positive philosophy every
main accepted theories of Comte and their interpretation are there in complete on and totality.

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