For more information
Call 1-800-351-0222
Call 1-800-351-0222
Context of Comte
Term Paper ID:27252
Get This Paper Free! or
Essay Subject:
Reviews the life & writings of Auguste Comte. Focuses on the influence the French Revolution, which began the year of his birth, had on his life & thought.... More...
7 Pages / 1575 Words
2 sources, 11 Citations,
APA Format
$28.00
More Papers on This Topic
Paper Abstract:
Reviews the life & writings of Auguste Comte. Focuses on the influence the French Revolution, which began the year of his birth, had on his life & thought.
Paper Introduction:
Context of Comte
Auguste Comte is considered one of the great intellectual figures of modern European history. He is responsible for introducing to European thought the concepts of positivism and the field of sociology. Comte, who was born in the pivotal year of the French Revolution and died in 1857, was very much a product of his times. In the aftermath of the French Revolution and the massive wars which swept Europe (consequently spreading many of the themes of that revolution), European intellectuals were preoccupied with the disposition and use of power in society. The challenge before intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic, such as Comte, was how to harness what they considered the best themes of the French Revolution while arresting the more sinister consequences of that momentous
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
His ideas grew out of anadmiration for the Convention which had briefly existed as a draconian formof government during the revolution and was most noted for attempting tohammer into law a long set of reforms before its power collapsed. He was a firsthand witness to the dangers of mob rule andthe unleashing of uncontrolled forces which he attributed to the clashingof interests related to the three pillars of society: family, state, andchurch (Caird, 1885, 41). Auguste Comte: An intellectual biography, volumeI Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The second rule of Comte's social science concerning consensus amongthe society's population was vitally important. Despite this fact, as a teenager Comte embraced therevolution. Comte, whowas born in the pivotal year of the French Revolution and died in 1857, wasvery much a product of his times. In his most famous work, Cours de Philosophie Positive (1842),Comte wrote in his introduction that these teenage years represented hispolitical and social formative years. Comtestates: "A true social force is the result of a more or less extended co-operation, gathered up into an individual organ" (Caird, 1885, 42). While Comte was a strong supporter of centralized government, he wasalso wary of the potential danger from authoritarian rule. Auguste Comte was born into a minor bourgeoisie family in the town ofMontpellier. One of the chief themes laced throughout Comte's body of work is theneed to build consensus within a society concerning how to be governed.His concern for studying the means of creating and bonding a society grewout of the failed policies of the First Directory during the revolution andthe civil war which raged within his own town over religious rights as wellas the bloody struggle for control of political power between royalists andJacobins. He also felt that intellectuals were more capableof understanding the connection between natural and moral law and thereforewere more capable than traditional politicians of ruling selflessly andwithout promoting self interests above the welfare of the people. Comte balanced the revolution's deep seated distrust of the Church andits institutionalized power against his family's deeply held religiousbeliefs which seemed stop him from fully embracing atheism. (1885). Again, thisknowledge came from his experiences with the dictatorial rule of theJacobins and later, Napoleon. His solution tothis dilemma was the maintenance of a careful separation of church andstate into spheres of influence. Mary Pickering (1993), author of the biographyon Comte called, Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography, Volume I,writes: The issue that was most important in the aftermath of the French Revolution was that of the basis and ends of power. (1993). This philosophy did not preclude Comte from allowing a need for an"enlightened dictator under specific conditions. Social philosophy and religion of Comte. Comte was also deeply affected by the chaos and bloodletting duringthe revolution. He called his theories positivism and claimedthey were grounded in the scientific movement which had begun in thefourteenth century. Like Comte, Mill felt anintellectual elite consisting of scientists and philosophers was the meansof introducing to society a new order fusing the spiritual with logic(Pickering, 1993, 527). Caird interpreted Comte's rule as: "There can be nosociety without a government, any more than there can be a government oreffective power among men, without society" (Caird, 1885, 41). He is responsible for introducing to Europeanthought the concepts of positivism and the field of sociology. This faith in the scientific method as a means of reordering (Comtealso called it social regeneration) society was shared by most of the greatthinkers of the day. This rule stated thatthere can be no society without government or a strong central institutionfor governance. Comte wrote that for the rest of hislife the spirit of the revolution preoccupied his thinking and he wouldspend an inordinate amount of time analyzing the revolution'saccomplishments and failures (Pickering, 1993, 8). How could it avoid the problem of mob rule (i.e., a renewal of the Terror) as well as that of dictatorship (i.e., a new Napoleon)?Comte was truly a child of the revolution and as such he was deeplyimpressed with most of its liberal and republican themes. In the aftermath of the FrenchRevolution and the massive wars which swept Europe (consequently spreadingmany of the themes of that revolution), European intellectuals werepreoccupied with the disposition and use of power in society. In Comte's opinion the question ofreligion was one of the problems never resolved during the revolution;subsequently leading to a great deal of dissension and civil war. At the time Montpellier had a reputation as a hotbed ofresistance to the revolution, and indeed, Comte's family strongly opposedthe revolution (particularly after the banning of Catholicism of which theywere adherents). New York: Kraus Reprint Co. How could the nation best be governed? Comte viewed such a dictator as provisional in times of emergencyrather than a permanent form of government. These experiences strongly influenced his later works when Comteturned his attention to the reorganization of religion and the moralcharacter of man. Comte wrote that the true founders of positivism werenoted scientists, Bacon, Galileo, and Descarte. Fromphilosophers to scientists, from social engineers to politicians,intellectuals of the day were confident that man's rational nature could beharnessed toward overcoming society's problems as well as bending the verylaws of nature to his will. References Caird, E. These earlyinfluences would play a critical role as the basis of his life's work. Again, Comte believed the best means of removingthe threat of anarchy was his first rule of social science whichunderscored the importance of separation between the three pillars intomutually supportive spheres: "By which Family, State, and Church arefinally to be distinguished and harmonized, or fixed in their properorganic relations to each other, so as to preclude forever their warfare orintrusion upon each other's provinces" (Caird, 1885, 41). His new social order for the nextregeneration or revolution would include radical changes in society'spolitical, philosophical, physical, and moral characteristics, on a globallevel (Pickering, 1993, 13). However, Comte had great difficulty balancing a need to includereligion in the social, moral, and political affairs of society whilesimultaneously offsetting the threat of church dominance. In Comte's model society, a benignoligarchy or even monarchy dictated to the people what was in their bestinterest since he felt the masses were not as well equipped asintellectuals to move beyond narrow and primal personal desires. Context of Comte Auguste Comte is considered one of the great intellectual figures ofmodern European history. Comte felt that the primary failure of the French revolutionaryexperiment which began in 1789 was its lack of a comprehensive,regenerating, social theory. Comte's social sciences, whether discussingpolitical institutions, the nature of government to governed, religion,family, or the nature of man, would always be informed by a need forrationale and balancing of interests. In theearly nineteenth century Comte also became an ardent supporter of NapoleonIII as a model of an enlightened dictator who was trying to initiate aseries of reforms which were similar to some tenants of Comte's positivism(Pickering, 1993, 663). Thus, he paidspecial attention to the need to construct a model of a religious sciencefor society based on scientific observation and in accordance with naturallaws. It is important to note that while Comte felt society's leaders ruledby the consent of the people, initially he did not necessarily share therepublican doctrine that these leaders strictly represented the will of thepeople. This confidence was also evident in the trendof the day of categorize and analyzing even social problems using thescientific method. Comteembraced this viewpoint early in his career and he derived it from thedirect influence of the popular philosopher of the day, Saint-Simon.However, as France again deteriorated into riots in the mid-nineteenthcentury and the policies of successive French governments provedineffective in dealing with society's problems, Comte became increasinglycynical regarding the role of government. As early as 1842 he would begincalling upon social thinkers and intellectuals to make their socialobservations and design social systems away from the political arena sincethis stage inevitably corrupted the moral and intellectual habits of suchmen (Pickering, 1993, 528). Another brilliant devotee to the social sciences wasComte's close friend, John Stuart Mill. Thechallenge before intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic, such asComte, was how to harness what they considered the best themes of theFrench Revolution while arresting the more sinister consequences of thatmomentous event, such as the anarchy and bloodshed that event unleashedthrough years of civil war. These themes were at the forefrontof intellectual thought in the early and mid-nineteenth-century. He felt that these menwere the first to look at the human spirit in a systematic, rational wayrather than the traditional and random way of metaphysics (religion andsuperstition) (Pickering, 1993, 66 ). Pickering, M. This is an important distinction because Comte is dismissing theexperiments of both the American and French revolutions which supported thetheoretical concept that the masses knew best what was in their own, andconsequently, national interests. 1968Reprint. He felt that anenlightened dictator was permissible if his goals included the bending ofthe people's will and support toward the initializing of progressivereforms.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
We can write a Custom Essay just for you.
Browse Essays by Subject