The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte

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

"[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."

"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 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."

"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."

"[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."

"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."

"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."

"[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."

"[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."

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

"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..."

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

"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."

"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."

"[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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"[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."

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

"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."

"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..."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"[N]o science can be effectually pursued without the preparation of a competent knowledge of the anterior sciences on which it depends."

"Physical philosophers cannot understand Physics without at least a general knowledge of Astronomy; nor Chemists, without Physics and Astronomy; nor Physiologists, without Chemistry, Physics, and Astronomy; nor, above all, the students of , without a general knowledge of all the anterior sciences."

"As such conditions are, as yet, rarely fulfilled, and as no organization exists for their fulfilment, there is amongst us, in fact, no rational scientific education."

"To this may be attributed, in great part, the imperfection of even the most important sciences at this day."

"If the fact is so in regard to scientific education, it is no less striking in regard to general education."

"Our intellectual system cannot be renovated till the natural sciences are studied in their proper order."

"Even the highest understandings are apt to associate their ideas according to the order in which they were received: and it is only an intellect here and there, in any age, which in its utmost vigour can, like Bacon, Descartes, and Leibnitz, make a clearance in their field of knowledge, so as to reconstruct from the foundation their system of ideas."

"Such is the operation of our great law upon scientific education through its effect on Doctrine. We cannot appreciate it duly without seeing how it affects Method."

"As the phenomena which are homogeneous have been classed under one science, while those which belong to other sciences are heterogeneous, it follows that the Positive Method must be constantly modified in an uniform manner in the Range of the same fundamental science, and will undergo modifications, different and more and more compound, in passing from one science to another."

"[I]f... we cannot understand the positive method in the abstract, but only by its application... we can have no adequate conception of it but by studying it in its varieties of application. No one science... could exhibit it. Though the Method is always the same, its procedure is varied."

"[I]t should be Observation with regard to one kind of phenomena, and Experiment with regard to another; and different kinds of experiment, according to the case. In the same way, a general precept, derived from one fundamental science, however applicable to another, must have its spirit preserved by a reference to its origin; as in the case of the theory of Classifications."

"The best idea of the Positive Method would... be obtained by the study of the most primitive and exalted of the sciences, if we were confined to one; but this isolated view would give no idea of its capacity of application to others in a modified form."

"Each science has its own proper advantages; and without some knowledge of them all, no conception can be formed of the power of the Method."

"Functions being divided into simple and compound... when we become able to determine the value of simple functions, there will be no difficulty with the compound."