Auguste Comte

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Lore & Background

Auguste Comte was born in Montpellier, Hérault, on 19 January 1798, under the newly founded French First Republic. After attending the Lycée Joffre and the University of Montpellier, he was admitted to the École Polytechnique in Paris, which was notable for its adherence to republicanism and progress. The École closed in 1816 for reorganization, and Comte continued his studies at the medical school in Montpellier; when it reopened, he did not request readmission. He abandoned Catholicism under the influence of his first teacher and Protestant pastor Daniel Encontre, and after returning to Montpellier, he set off again for Paris, earning money by small jobs. In August 1817, Comte became a student and secretary to Henri de Saint-Simon, who brought him into intellectual society and greatly influenced his thought. He published his first essays in Saint-Simon's publications, though he did not publish under his own name until 1819's "La séparation générale entre les opinions et les désirs." In 1824, he left Saint-Simon due to unbridgeable differences. Comte married Caroline Massin in 1825, but in 1826 he was taken to a mental health hospital, leaving without being cured – only stabilized by French alienist Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol – and he later attempted suicide in 1827 by jumping off the Pont des Arts. Between then and his divorce in 1842, he published the six volumes of his Cours. He developed a close friendship with John Stuart Mill, and in 1844 fell deeply in love with the Catholic Clotilde de Vaux, whose death in 1846 made this love quasi-religious, leading him to develop a new 'Religion of Humanity.' He published four volumes of Système de politique positive (1851–1854) and his final work, the first volume of La Synthèse Subjective, in 1856. Comte died in Paris on 5 September 1857 from stomach cancer and was buried in the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery, surrounded by cenotaphs in memory of his mother, Rosalie Boyer, and of Clotilde de Vaux.

Reader's Guide

Comte's significance lies in his formulation of positivism, an epistemological perspective first described in The Course in Positive Philosophy, a series of texts published between 1830 and 1842. He proposed a law of three stages—theological, metaphysical, and positive—through which society evolves in its quest for truth. This was one of the first theories of social evolutionism. He also developed an 'encyclopedic law' that produced a systematic and hierarchical classification of all sciences, including inorganic physics (astronomy, earth science and chemistry) and organic physics (biology and, for the first time, physique sociale, later renamed Sociologie). He re-invented the term 'sociologie' in 1838. His work attempted to remedy social disorder caused by the French Revolution, which he believed indicated an imminent transition to a new society based on science. Comte's ideas had a major impact on 19th-century thought, influencing John Stuart Mill and George Eliot, and his concept of sociology and social evolutionism set the tone for early social theorists such as Harriet Martineau and Herbert Spencer, evolving into modern academic sociology as presented by Émile Durkheim. His 'Religion of Humanity' presaged the development of non-theistic religious humanist and secular humanist organizations in the 19th century. He may also have coined the word altruism.

Did You Know?

• Comte attempted suicide in 1827 by jumping off the Pont des Arts in Paris.
• He was taken to a mental health hospital in 1826 and was stabilized by alienist Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol.
• Comte's apartment from 1841 to 1857 is now conserved as the Maison d'Auguste Comte at 10 rue Monsieur-le-Prince in Paris.
• He may have coined the word altruism.
• Comte's final work, La Synthèse Subjective, was published in 1856, one year before his death.