Page 32 - DSOC401_SOCIOLOGICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Sociological Thought

notes 1. Comte was not satisfied by the metaphysical and religious _______ for the study–method
for social events.
2. Comte wished to create a new science which was completely _______ of the then prevalent
religious and metaphysical thinking, which would study social events in a scientific way.
3. Society is an _______. Within this system there are many sub–systems.
Comte’s Sociology is an abstract science. It is not just a science of only economic, political, legal or
any other special type of event. It is a science, that searched out the fundamental laws on which the
complete social science was based.
Comte’s Sociology was also a unifying science. He called it unifying science because his sociology did
not study just some special wing/division of social life, it studies society in its complete form. Sociology
touches not just, economic, religious, moral/ethical on scientific events, it is related to them and studies
them. Comte believed that different parts of social life are related deeply to each other, and dependent
on each other. Therefore their separate study is not proper. Only Sociology, taking its different parts
together, studies them in relation to each other. Therefore it is considered an unifying.
Science Sociology is an unifying science in the sense that it is established on the theories of the sciences
that came before it – Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics. In his hierarchy of
fundamental sciences, Comte placed Sociology on the highest point, but by doing this, it was not
because he just wanted to do so. This highest stature for Sociology only denotes that this science is
based on the sciences that came before it, and gathers their main theories and law into itself. Because
society is made of these living beings, whose bodies are made of the matter/materials of this universe,
for this reason the beginning of Sociology is with the laws of these related science. Comte has written,
“First and foremost that medium in which social life has developed and those beings who manifest
it. Without out understanding them, social life can not be understanding them, social life can not be
understood. For this reason we cannot achieve progress in this science, until we have sufficient abstract
knowledge about the relationship of the outer world and individual knowledge, the relationship of
these laws to the influence on social events special laws, would not be enough to explain.”
As according to Comte, Sociology is a science, therefore it is capable of forecasting. If it is not able
to forecast, it has not right to be a science. Past knowledge or future vision are the critera of science.
Scientific law give us the knowledge of what kind will future activities be.

Did You Know? To study the present social state, and that basis to predict about its related
future, is one of the main activities of Sociology.

There is no doubt that Comte build his sociology with the help of scientific methods used to study
social events, with the objective to collect and increase the reservoir of knowledge about this subject.
But this was not his one and only aim. Comte wanted to use Sociology for the new activity of social
reformation and moral awakening. Comte believed that in relation to human life, it is futile just
collecting knowledge, if that knowledge is not used for the development of his life. It is true that a
scientist always attempts to know truth to the maximum, but it is also true, that he wishes that the
appearance of the truth will bring some well–being to humanity. Comte too was just such a scientist.
Therefore it is an important activity of Sociology to establish a union between knowledge and activity,
so that whatever knowledge related to social events gained by us, should be used for the work of social
reformation. Comte also believed that human life should have some moral aims. These moral objectives
can be fulfilled possibly only through the establishment of the religion of humanity. Sociology can
help bring about the unification of human knowledge and human religion. It is for this reason that
in the ideal society of Comte, the priest’s would be the most important class, and these priest would

26 LoVeLY professionaL uniVersitY