CHAPTER II 



COMTE'S LIFE AND THE PRINCIPLES OF HIS TEACHING 



Comte as founder His life His books The term "Sociology" "Statics" 

 (cf. Spencer) "Dynamics" Divisions of the Polity Comte's religion 

 The term ' ' Positive " Four authorities superseded Comte on psychology 

 And on ethics Law of the three stages Criticism Transition to the 

 study of Comte's relation to science He repudiates dogmatic atheism and 

 materialism His scale of values in the hierarchy of the sciences Spencer's 

 criticism. 



ALONE perhaps of all sociologists, Comte may claim to 

 have his life studied, however briefly, as an integral part 

 of the gospel he teaches. 



Auguste Comte was born at Montpellier in 1798. 

 He was early distinguished for his mathematical ability ; 

 also for a refractoriness to authority, which led to his 

 expulsion from the Polytechnic School of Paris. In 

 1818 he met St. Simon the socialist, and became for six 

 years his close friend and disciple ; but the alliance was 

 broken off by a violent quarrel, never to be healed. In 

 1825 he married. The union proved conspicuously 

 unhappy, and ended in a separation in 1842. In 1826 

 he began lectures upon his system of philosophy ; and 

 though they were interrupted for a time by an attack 



