Comte s Positive Philosophy. 137 



become the designation of scientific thought in 

 general. The naturalistic tendencies observable 

 in Sokrates and Aristotle, organized by Bacon 

 and Descartes, and represented by subsequent dis 

 coverers, might thus without inaccuracy be con 

 sidered &quot; positive.&quot; 



The second distinctive feature of M. Comte s 

 philosophy is its arrangement of the sciences in 

 such an order that those which deal with the most 

 general and least complex relations are studied 

 prior to those which treat of relations more spe 

 cial and involved. M. Comte distinguishes be 

 tween the abstract sciences, &quot; which have to do 

 with the laws which govern the elementary facts 

 of nature,&quot; and the concrete sciences, which &quot; con 

 cern themselves only with the particular com 

 binations of phenomena which are found in ex 

 istence.&quot; Thus Physics and Chemistry are the 

 abstract sciences corresponding to the concrete 

 science Mineralogy, while Zoology and Botany 

 deal with concrete examples of the abstract laws 

 enunciated by Physiology. Leaving the concrete 

 sciences out of consideration, M. Comte arranges 

 the abstract sciences as follows : I. Mathematics ; 

 II. Astronomy ; III. Physics (comprising the sci 

 ences of Weight, Heat, Sound, Light, and Elec 

 tricity) ; IV. Chemistry , V. Biology ; and VI. 



