SOCB43H3 : Comte Study Questions.doc
Document Summary
Positivism is the application of the scientific method to the analysis of society. Comte felt that sociology could be used to inspire social reforms and generally make a society a better place for its members. Positivity: human beings now understand the scientific laws that control the world. Theological: in this stage human beings rely on supernatural agencies to explain what they can"t explain otherwise. In the infantile state of reason and experience, individual objects are looked upon as animated. The next step is the conception of invisible beings, each of whom superintends and governs an entire class of objects or events. The last merges this multitude of divinities in a single. God, who made the whole universe in the beginning, and guides and carries on its phaenomena by his continued action, or, as others think, only modifies them from time to time by special interferences. Metaphysical: in this stage human beings attribute effects to abstract but poorly understood causes.
