History 2501E Lecture Notes - Authoritarianism, Industrial Revolution, Auguste Comte
Document Summary
Darwinism and malthusian theories were some of the new theories at the time as well as positivism. These ideas were very important because in latin america race and progress were very important. The idea of race has changed but it has always been there as well as racial prejudice. Was put together by august comte and he wrote a two volume book from 1830-1842 and it rejects speculation and unanswerable metaphysical questions (metaphysics was a branch of philosophy concerned with the ultimate nature of existence) He said phenomena was relative and not absolute and he really wanted to understand the laws of nature and society but their nature and ultimate causes were not important. He thought of society as an organism and he believed if you understood what changed society (laws) you could alter it for the better (wanted economic progress)