CAS SO 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Auguste Comte, Secular Morality, Divine Providence
Document Summary
Reading prior to lecture (pages 17 to 41) French scholar auguste comte (1798 - 1857) invented what he called social physics or positivism. Positivism arose out of a need to make moral sense of the social order in a time of declining religious authority. The job of the sociologist was to develop a secular morality. Comte thought that human society had gone through three historical stages: 1. the theological stage, in which society seemed to be the result of divine will. The answer was always that it was god"s plan. To better understand god"s plan and thus comprehend the logic of social life, scholars consulted the bible: the metaphysical stage, in which enlightenment thinkers saw humankind"s behavior as governed by natural, biological instincts. Harriet martineu addressed topics ranging form the way we educate children to the relationship between the federal and state governments.
