French sociologist Auguste Comte (1798-1857) coined the term positivism and developed epistemological, theoretical, and pragmatic postulates of the new approach in his six-volume book Introduction to Positive Philosophy (1830–1842). Comte's positivism is influenced by eighteenth-century French Enlightenment, and the philosophical teachings of French philosopher Henri de Saint-Simon, whose assistant and student Comte was in the period from 1817 to 1824.

Comte's main goal was to build a positive science of society. Comte's positivism has two meanings – the first is that scientific methods must be applied to the study of social phenomena, and the second is the view that we should use sociology to shape society in a positive way. He determined the subject and laid the theoretical and methodological foundations of sociology. Comte performed a synthesis of earlier theoretical and epistemological approaches to the study of society. From David Hume and Immanuel Kant, he took the positivist method and position of historical determinism, from Giovan Giambattista Vico and Joseph de Maistre he took the notion of predestination of the course of history, and from Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Marquis de Condorcet, and Saint-Simon he adopted their law on the three stages of the intellectual development of mankind.

He believed that human knowledge could be increased only by applying a positive or scientific method of observation, experimentation, and comparison, while the historical method is a consequence of applying a comparative method to successive stages of human society. Comte introduced a hierarchy of sciences, and the sequence is the following: mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and sociology. Every science depends on the one before it, and its subject is becoming more and more specific, as well as more complex and unsuitable for measuring and predicting. Sociology, according to Comte, should unite knowledge from political theory, psychology, ethics, and economics. He believed that the special scientific disciplines that examine each of these areas do not have the property of true sciences. Comte intended an integrative function for sociology, in order to eliminate the disastrous social and moral consequences of the French Revolution. Sociology was supposed to lead to ideological agreement and social balance. This would be achieved through the conscious and planned application of sociological knowledge in all aspects of social life.

Comte viewed society as a collective organism possessing a collective consciousness (consensus universel). Both the organism and society have a harmony of structure and function and act in relation to their environment in order to achieve goals. The final stage of organic evolution is the development of human society. The problems that exist in society are diseases of the social organism and are studied by social pathology. Comte viewed the family as the basic cell of society, while, on the other hand, he believed that religion had a crucial regulatory function for the social organism. He divided sociology into social statics and social dynamics. Within society, there is a division of functions in the form of specialization and division of labor, while government institutions have the role of uniting these specialized parts and functions.

                                Three Stages of Social Progress

In Comte's sociology, the law of the three stages of general social progress is of great importance. Those three stages are: theological, metaphysical, and positive. Both the general process of social evolution and various parts of society and various areas of human consciousness must go through all three stages. None of these stages can be skipped, but intellectual guidance can speed up or slow down the process of transition from one stage to another.

The theological period of human history is the longest and lasts from the emergence of society until 1300; metaphysically lasting from 1300 to 1800; while the positive period occurs after 1800. Comte observes these three stages through the three most important areas: intellectual understanding of the world, human activities aimed at material security, and moral satisfaction. The intellectual understanding of the world is first expressed through theology, then through metaphysics, and finally the scientific-positivist stage is reached. The theological stage contains three sub-stages: fetishism, polytheism, and monotheism. Material security is realized first through conquest, then through defense, and finally the industrial production of material goods. In the first stage, human morality derives from the feeling of belonging to the family, in the second stage from the feeling of belonging to the state, and in the third stage from the feeling of belonging to the unique human race.

Table 1. Comte's three stages of general social progress.

                                                View on State

The state, as a form of government and a way of association, is an important area of ​​Comte's research. He believes that a society without a government is impossible, just as a government without a society is impossible. Every stable society needs adequate social control, so a sovereign government with a monopoly of power is needed for the creation and survival of a lasting political society. He sees the state as a transitional form of association between the city and the full application of positivism to the political system. Comte believes that every state has the same basic characteristics: population, territory, sovereign power, and organized administration. The state must coordinate human activities and protect the human community from the dangers of extreme specialization. To achieve coordination and maintain power, the state must, in addition to the possibility of using physical force, also have intellectual leadership, and implement moral sanctions and social control. In the past, war was the main factor in the unification of political power, while today industry is a source of social discipline and state control. The industry has developed relationships of command and obedience that extend to the public sphere and control the convergent and divergent aspirations of individuals.

                                        Organization of Society

Comte presented a very precise picture of what a society based on positive science and industrial production should look like. First, a „Religion of Humanity“ should be introduced that will destroy tyrannical states and create groups of cities united by religious tutorship based on the worship of humanity. Regulatory power should be exercised by priests of the Religion of Humanity. The government would be perfected through family morality, which would be under the supervision of the priests of the Religion of Humanity. Comte believed that if the population, with its property, family, and language, were united in a territory of a suitable size, it would form a community that could form the core of a „Great Being“ (sacred being of the Religion of Humanity).

Such an organization would be a city-state, (a city with its surroundings) and it would be the only type of sovereign political body because any territorially bigger political organization would be oppressive. There should be three classes in the city-state: priests - to direct thinking, women - to inspire love, and practical leaders - to direct war and production. Every class, except women, should be organized on a hierarchical basis. It would be the duty of the clergy to interpret the sociological teachings of positivism. There would be one priest for every ten thousand families, while in Paris there would be more national priests and the High Priest. Paris would replace Rome as a religious center. Priests should develop generational continuity, and class solidarity, and be moral censors, but they would not have any secular authority, only an advisory function.

According to Comte's idea, employers should have sovereign and industrial power.  Capital used to be a means of oppression, which made the life of the proletariat twice as difficult. When the general education is done by priests, then the capitalist class would start to work in the interest of ordinary people. Within the capitalist class, bankers would be the most influential. This class would work in the interest of industry efficiency and social justice. Women would be the guardians of family morality. Marriage would be indissoluble even after death. International relations would be based on a multitude of small non-tyrannical city-states united by universal religion and clergy. The agent that would unite these three classes would be the proletariat. Comte rejects universal suffrage and parliamentary power. Workers' clubs would be the main mechanisms through which the public would adopt rules of social behavior. The proletariat would have dynamic strength, and a firm alliance of philosophers and proletarians would be the guarantor of sound public opinion.

Comte's positivism influenced many different sociologists in different countries. British sociologist Harriet Martineau, similar to Comte and Claude Henri de Saint-Simon, advocated for scientific positivism in the study of society, and, like those two, believed that scientific knowledge of society should be the main basis for shaping laws, education, and the entire social order. German sociologist Gustav Ratzenhofer and American sociologist Franklin Giddings were also influenced by Comte's positivism. French sociologist Emil Durkheim's basic methodological postulate that we should "treat social facts as things", was based on positivism, but, unlike Comte's positivism, Durkheim believed that sociology could study the inner psychic life of people.

Authors: Comte, August; Martineau, Harriet; Durkheim, Emil. Saint-Simon, Henri de.

Books:

Comte. Introduction to Positive Philosophy (1988, in French 1830-1842);

     -    The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte (2018);

     -    A General View of Positivism (2018, in French 1844);

     -    System of Positive Polity, 2 vols. (2018, in French 1851-1854);  

     -    The Catechism of Positive Religion  (2018, in French 1852);

Halfpenny, Peter and Peter McMylor, eds. Positivist Sociology and Its Critics. 3 vols. (1994).