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 "positive." 



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, " which have to do 

 with the laws which govern the elementary facts 

 of nature," and the concrete sciences, which " con- 

 cern themselves only with the particular com- 

 binations of phenomena which are found in ex- 

 istence." 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. 



