COMTE - INFLUENCES

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>COMTE</FONT><BR> THE HIGH PRIEST OF SOCIAL SCIENCE</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Influences</B></FONT><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>INTELLECTUAL AWAKENINGS</B></FONT><BR> Comte's intellectual development took a series of different turns as a result of brief encounters with a number of key individuals. An early role model, a Protestant pastor and professor of mathematics, Daniel Encontre, inspired in the young Comte, normally a sullen and difficult student, a love of mathematics as well as a desire to master a variety of disciplines. It was when Comte worked with and for Saint-Simon that the foundations of his "Positive Philosophy" were formulated, and there continues a debate as to who benefited most from the exchange of ideas - the master or his secretary. Saint-Simon also encouraged him to abandon his youthful revolutionary faith in liberty in favour of an intellectual elitism that found its ultimate expression in his "Positive Polity". It is well to remember that the seeds of his more radical ideas of a universal Religion of Humanity led by a scientific priestly elite can be found even in his early writings. This is not to deny that his love for Clothilde and her early death resulted in a dramatic change in emphasis and style.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>SOCIOLOGY IS BORN</B></FONT><BR> Comte may have gained his first ideas about the need for a positive, non-supernatural / scientific approach to the study of society from Saint-Simon. However, it was Comte who progressed from concept to the development of what he initially termed "social physics". Comte changed the name of his new science to "sociology" because he thought that the previous term had been "stolen" by a Belgian social statistician, Adolphe Quetelet. His sociology was to be patterned after the natural sciences in its empirical methods. Most importantly, it was to provide benefit to humanity by allowing future improvements in the human condition based on scientific understanding of the factors influencing human progress.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>EVOLUTION OF SOCIOLOGY</B></FONT><BR> Considering Comte's emphasis on evolutionary processes, it comes as somewhat of a surprise to learn that he died two years before the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species" launched the evolution debate. It was up to another sociologist, Herbert Spencer, to relate Darwinian theory to the study of society. Thus was born Social Darwinism.<P> Spencer saw evolution as a universal process, which explains alike both the "earliest changes which the universe at large is supposed to have undergone . . . and those latest changes which we trace in society and the products of social life." The evolution of human societies, far from being different from other evolutionary phenomena, is but a special case of a universally applicable natural law. Sociology can become a science only when it is based on the idea of natural, evolutionary law.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>SOCIOLOGY BECOMES ESTABLISHED</B></FONT><BR> Since Comte, sociology has become recognised as a credible, respectable discipline in universities. A key figure in its acceptance was Emile Durkheim, who wrote a handbook on "Rules of Sociological Method". Durkheim abandoned the more extreme religious overtones of Comte's later conclusions but, like him, believed that what is good for social integration is good for the individual.<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>"The individual submits to society and this submission is the condition of liberation. For man, freedom consists in the deliverance from blind, unthinking, physical forces; this he achieves by opposing against them the great and intelligent force which is society, under whose protection he shelters."<P> ("Sociology & Philosophy" 1974)</BLOCKQUOTE> Durkheim also followed Comte's suggested methodology of studying the pathological. He published an exemplary positivistic study on suicide, analysing what he termed "social facts" such as suicide rates in specific groups, which could be established empirically and statistically. No consideration is given to individual cases or psychological factors. He saw society as a collectivity not just a heap of individuals. It was a <B>system</B> whose component parts were <B>institutions</B>, held together by a "collective consciousness", that is, shared norms and values. When this was not strong enough to override divisions, society broke down; it became "pathological". <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>