Positivism in Social Science: A Critical Analysis of Positivism with Reference to the Views of Auguste Comte

Comte was a French philosopher considered as the first philosopher of science. Auguste Comte was the person who coined the term ‘positive philosophy’. It was then commonly accepted as ‘positivism’.  It should be mentioned that, ‘in order to legitimize the utility of the new science of human society, Comte insisted that it be “positive,” i.e., scientific in methods of analysis and prognosis’ (Abraham & Morgan, 1985, p. 15). He combined the study of the society with scientific method. In other words, he was the first person to introduce the philosophical and methodological foundation to social science research. He wanted to build a natural science of the society, which means that he wanted to study the society through natural scientific methods. No one has analyzed the society through an empirical approach before him. Therefore, he is considered as the ‘Father of Sociology’. In his The Course in Positive Philosophy, he has discussed about the physical sciences that are already in existence and the emergence of social sciences. He named this new social science as ‘social physics’. But later it was named as ‘sociology’.

Actually, 19th century was a period of evolutionists as Lamarck, Darwin, and Marx were there and they had different views on the evolution of the world. Marx is different from that of Darwin and Lamarck, because he introduced a social change that causes the evolution of the society. Moreover, ‘Comte regarded division of labor and population growth as corollaries of intellectual evolution-the predominant principle of social development’ (Abraham & Morgan, 1985, p. 7). Sociology is always in search of (social) laws that can be applied to the society ‘such that society’s past can best be understood and its future predicted’ (Abraham & Morgan, 1985, p. 7). In a way, Comte is an evolutionist. He introduced three phases of the evolution. They are,

-Theological Phase

-Metaphysical Phase

-Positive Stage 

Theological stage exists because of the feeling of insecure and ignorance. He broke this stage into three sub-stages. They are,

-Fetishism 

-Polytheism

-Monotheism 

Fetishism is the primary stage which was there in the primitive societies. Primitive people believed that the lifeless objects (trees, stones, piece of wood, water etc.) have living spirits within them and they worshiped them. They believed that external phenomenon have supernatural powers. Polytheism was a bit different for that of fetishism as people in this stage believed in many Gods and they attributed the supernatural characteristics to particular Gods. For instance, people believed in the god of water, god of air, god of rain etc. in monotheism, people attributed all the supernatural qualities to a single God who is all-powerful. 

In the metaphysical stage people thought logically about the metaphysical issues. To illustrate, they searched that whether there is a life after death. They concerned more of the afterlife. When it comes to the positive stage, empirical evidences took a prominent place as positivists believed only the things that can be verified through sense perception, observation mathematical and logical proofs. It is also called as the scientific age. 

He has introduced a categorization of sciences as organic and inorganic sciences. Biology is considered as an organic science whereas astrology, physics, and chemistry are considered as inorganic sciences. However, he called sociology as ‘the queen of all sciences’. He studied society through social static and social dynamics. For him, social statics should be studied to understand social dynamics.

Bibliography

Abraham, F., & Morgan, H. J. (1985). Sociological Thought from Comte to Sorokin. Madras: Macmillan India Limited .

Benton, T., & Craib, I. (2001). Philosophy of Social Science- The Philosophical Foundations of Social Thought . London: Palgrave.

Brown, S., Collinson, D., & Wilkinson, R. (Eds.). (1998). One-hundred Twentieth-Century Philosophers. New York: Routledge .

Crotty, M. (1998). foundations of Social Research- Meaning and Perspective in the Research Process. London : SAGE.

Uyangoda, J. (2015). Social Research-Philosophical and Methodological Foundations. Colombo 5: Social Scinetists Association .