The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte

"Thus we have before us Five fundamental Sciences in successive dependence,—Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Physiology, and... Social Physics."

"If the different sciences offer to us a varying degree of precision, it is from no want of certainty in themselves, but of our mastery of their phenomena."

"We have not to investigate the nature of either; for the positive philosophy does not inquire into natures."

"It would be easy to make the divisions of the Organic... by dividing physiology into vegetable and animal, according to popular custom. But this distinction... hardly extends into those Abstract Physics... Vegetables and animals come alike... when our object is to learn the general laws of life— ...[i.e.,]to study physiology. ...[T]he distinction grows ever fainter and more dubious with new discoveries, it bears no relation to our plan of research..."

"If we do not bear in mind the law which governs progression, we shall encounter insurmountable difficulties: for it is clear that the theological or metaphysical state of some fundamental theories must have temporarily coincided with the positive state of others which precede them in our established gradation, and actually have at times coincided with them; and this must involve the law itself in an obscurity which can be cleared up only by the classification we have proposed."

"A very absurd proposition may be very precise; as if we should say, for instance, that the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to three right angles; and a very certain proposition may be wanting in precision in our statement of it; as, for instance, when we assert that every man will die."

"Great confusion would arise from any attempt to adhere strictly to historical order in our exposition of the sciences, for they have not all advanced at the same rate; and we must be for ever borrowing from each some fact to illustrate another, without regard to priority of origin."

"Therefore... physiological study should begin with inorganic phenomena..."

"[W]e find a natural division of Terrestrial Physics into two, according as we regard bodies in their mechanical or their chemical character. Hence we have Physics... and Chemistry. Again, the second class must be studied through the first."

"As social conditions modify the operation of physiological laws, Social Physics must have a set of observations of its own."

"This gradation is in essential conformity with the order which has spontaneously taken place among the branches of natural philosophy, when pursued separately, and without any purpose of establishing such order."

"This consideration is so important that it is difficult to understand without it the history of the human mind. The general law which governs this history... cannot be verified, unless we combine it with the scientific gradation just laid down: for it is according to this gradation that the different human theories have attained in succession the theological state, the metaphysical, and finally the positive."

"Thus, organic phenomena are less exact and systematic than inorganic; and of these again terrestrial are less exact and systematic than those of astronomy."

"The certainty of science, and our precision in the knowledge of it, are two very different things, which have been too often confounded; and are so still..."

"By the dogmatic method, therefore, must every advanced science be attained, with so much of the historical combined with it as is rendered necessary..."

"[A] science cannot be completely understood without a knowledge of how it arose; and... a dogmatic knowledge of any science is necessary to an understanding of its history; and therefore we shall notice, in treating of the fundamental sciences, the incidents of their origin, when distinct and illustrative; and we shall use their history, in a scientific sense, in our treatment of Social Physics; but the historical study, important, even essential, as it is, remains entirely distinct from the proper dogmatic study of science."

"Our problem is, then, to find the one rational order, among a host of possible systems. ...This order is determined by the degree of simplicity, or... [i.e.,] generality of their phenomena. Hence results their successive dependence, and the greater or lesser facility for being studied. ...à priori... the most simple phenomena must be the most general; for whatever is observed in the greatest number of cases is of course the most disengaged from the incidents of particular cases."

"We are first struck by the clear division of all natural phenomena into two classes—of inorganic and of organic bodies. The organized are evidently, in fact, more complex and less general than the inorganic, and depend upon them..."

"Astronomical phenomena are the most general, simple, and abstract of all; and therefore the study of natural philosophy must... begin with them. ...[T]he laws to which they are subject influence all others whatsoever."

"The most difficult astronomical question involves less intricacy than the simple movement of even a solid body, when the determining circumstances are to be computed."

"Here we find ourselves presented with two orders of phenomena; those which relate to the individual, and those which relate to the species, especially when it is gregarious. With regard to Man, especially, this distinction is fundamental."

"[O]ur social science must issue from that which relates to the life of the individual. On the other hand, there is no occasion to suppose, as some eminent physiologists have done, that Social Physics is only an appendage to physiology. The phenomena of the two are not identical, though they are homogeneous; and it is of high importance to hold the two sciences separate."

"This—casting out everything arbitrary—we must regard as the true filiation of the sciences; and in it we find the plan of this work."

"There is no refusing a principle which distributes the interior of each science after the same method with the aggregate sciences."

"Such an accordance is a strong presumption that the arrangement is natural. ...[I]t coincides with the actual development of natural philosophy."

"If no leading science can be effectually pursued otherwise than through those which precede it in the scale, it is evident that no vast development of any science could take place prior to the great astronomical discoveries to which we owe the impulse given to the whole. The progression may since have been simultaneous; but it has taken place in the order we have recognized."

"[T]his classification marks, with precision, the relative perfection of the different sciences, which consists in the degree of precision of knowledge, and in the relation of its different branches."

"[T]he more general, simple, and abstract any phenomena are, the less they depend on others, and the more precise they are in themselves, and the more clear in their relations with each other."

"This fact is completely accounted for by the gradation we have laid down; and we shall see... that the possibility of applying mathematical analysis to the study of phenomena is exactly in proportion to the rank which they hold in the scale of the whole."

"We must beware of confounding the degree of precision which we are able to attain in regard to any science, with the certainty of the science itself."

"Thus the Dogmatic Method is for ever superseding the Historical, as we advance to a higher position in science."

"If every mind had to pass through all the stages that every predecessor in the study had gone through... however easy it is to learn rather than invent, it would be impossible to effect the purpose of education,—to place the student on the vantage-ground gained by the labours of all the men who have gone before. By the dogmatic method this is done, even though the living student may have only an ordinary intellect, and the dead may have been men of lofty genius."

"The only objection to the preference of the Dogmatic method is that it does not show how the science was attained; but... this is the case also with the Historical method."

"To pursue a science historically is quite a different thing from learning the history of its progress. This last pertains to the study of human history..."

"Thus... in the system of the sciences, astronomy must come before physics, properly so called: and yet, several branches of physics, above all, optics, are indispensable to the complete exposition of astronomy."

"In the main... our classification agrees with the history of science; the more general and simple sciences actually occurring first and advancing best... being followed by the more complex and restricted, though all were, since the earliest times, enlarging simultaneously."

"We must begin then with the study of the most general or simple phenomena, going on successively to the more particular or complex."

"[T]he most general and simple phenomena are the furthest removed from Man's ordinary sphere, and must thereby be studied in a calmer and more rational frame of mind than those in which he is more nearly implicated; and this constitutes a new ground for the corresponding sciences being developed more rapidly."

"[T]he general laws of inorganic physics must be established before we can proceed with success to the examination of a dependent class..."

"Each of these great halves of natural philosophy has subdivisions. Inorganic physics must... be divided into two sections—of celestial and terrestrial phenomena. Thus we have Astronomy, geometrical and mechanical, and Terrestrial Physics."

"The general effects of gravitation preponderate, in all terrestrial phenomena, over all effects which may be peculiar to them, and modify the original ones."

"It follows that the analysis of the simplest terrestrial phenomenon, not only chemical, but even purely mechanical, presents a greater complication than the most compound astronomical phenomenon."

"Chemical phenomena are more complicated than mechanical, and depend upon them, without influencing them in return. [A]ll chemical action is first submitted to the influence of weight, heat, electricity, etc., and presents moreover something which modifies all these. Thus, while it follows Physics, it presents itself as a distinct science."

"An analogous division arises in the other half of Natural Philosophy—the science of organized bodies."

"[W]e have two great sections in organic physics—Physiology... and Social Physics, which is dependent on it."

"In all Social phenomena we perceive the working of the physiological laws of the individual; and moreover something which modifies their effects, and which belongs to the influence of individuals over each other—singularly complicated in the case of the human race by the influence of generations on their successors."

"The first considers the most general, simple, abstract, and remote phenomena known to us, and those which affect all others without being affected by them. The last considers the most particular, compound, concrete phenomena, and those which are the most interesting to Man."

"Between these two, the degrees of speciality, of complexity, and individuality are in regular proportion to the place of the respective sciences in the scale exhibited."

"[W]e shall find that the same principle which gives this order to the whole body of science arranges the parts of each science; and its soundness will therefore be freshly attested us often as it presents itself afresh."

"The most interesting property of our formula of gradation is its effect on education, both general and scientific. This is its direct and unquestionable result."