COMTE - KNOWLEDGE

<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>What Can we Know?</B></FONT><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>METAPHYSICS DISCREDITED</B></FONT><BR> Comte believed that he had totally discredited <A HREF="../t03/g032.html" TARGET="_top">metaphysical</A> abstractions such as <A HREF="../05/05f01.html" TARGET="_top">Aristotle's</A> "causes" or <A HREF="../16/16f01.html" TARGET="_top">Hegel's</A> "time-spirit". These were attempts to explain the known by the unknown. Metaphysics was dead, replaced by scientific methodology. Observation and deduction, laws based on carefully collected data which reveal the relation between phenomena. "Such a law is the law of gravitation. We say things are explained by it, because it connects an immense variety of facts under one head."<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>POSITIVE THINKING</B></FONT><BR> "In the scientific or positive stage the mind has given over the vain search after absolute knowledge; abandoned the quest for knowledge of the origin and destination of the universe, of causes and forces; and applies itself solely to the study of laws, to the study of relations of succession and resemblance. Reasoning and observation, duly combined, are the means of this knowledge. What is now called the <I>explanation</I> of anything is the establishment of a connection between it and some general laws, the number of which diminishes with the progress of science..."<BR> "The positive system will attain its ultimate perfection if men could represent all particular facts as instances of one general law."<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B> "KNOWLEDGE ALLOWS PREDICTION"</B></FONT><BR> "Savoir pour prévoir, prévoir pour pouvoir".<BR> Sociology adopts a holistic view - man and a society subject to identifiable and verifiable laws. The achievement of this aim is not merely to satisfy scientific curiosity. A new moral order of society based on scientific knowledge could thus be established. Positive sociological knowledge could offer the means for peaceful reconciliation of social order. If it is possible to identify laws that determine man's social evolution, such knowledge could be used to keep the process on track. Social change would not depend on revolutionary violence and manipulation of the mob. It would be controlled to follow the most natural and appropriate pathway. <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>