PSC 392 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Auguste Comte, Neurosis, Worship God
28 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
The 21st century will be a century of religious revivalism. General answers are similar but can more specifically be broken down country-by- country. During the 19th century every major social science philosopher argued religion is becoming a relic of the past: part of dying world of tradition. Decline arguments: childhood thesis: august comte, opiate thesis: karl marx, neurosis: freud, disenchantment. Arguments prominent during the 19th and 20th centuries when religion was on decline. Comte"s theories were the most famous as he was the founder of sociology . Human history can be divided into 3 stages: magic and religion: humans developed superstitions to explain the world, philosophy: vague/abstract explanations of natural world, science: rationalist thought. The first and somewhat the second stage are associated with religion, like a human brain develops from magical (childhood) to youth to maturity. Simplistic argument to say we are just returning to childhood: human history much more complex.
