SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE METHODS 



be glad to possess. The " striking advantage " 

 of the subjective method is no other than the 

 advantage enjoyed by the metaphysician of be- 

 ing permitted to persuade himself that he has 

 arrived at complete knowledge because he has 

 never stopped to confront the order of his con- 

 ceptions with the order of phenomena. But 

 let us continue with Comte : " Our logical sys- 

 tem can be rendered complete and durable only 

 by the intimate union of the two methods. 

 History does not authorize us to regard them 

 as radically irreconcilable, provided that both 

 are systematically regenerated in accordance 

 with their common function, intellectual and 

 social. To yield to theology the exclusive 

 privilege of using the subjective method is as 

 unnecessary as to see in theology the only legi- 

 timate basis of religious feeling. If sociology 

 may possess the latter, it may also possess the 

 former, as the two are intimately connected. 

 To this end it is enough that the subjective 

 method, renouncing the vain search into effi- 

 cient and final causes, should henceforth, like 

 the objective method, be employed solely in the 

 discovery of natural laws, whereby our social 

 condition may be ameliorated." ^ 



I do not know where one could find a pas- 

 sage, in the literature of modern philosophy, 

 more lamentably confused in its ideas than this. 



^ Politique Positive, torn. i. p. 455, 



