Auguste Comte

Auguste Comte was a French philosopher who lived most of his life in the 19th century. Comte was born in 1798 at Montpellier, in southwestern France. He died in Paris on September 5th, 1857. His birth name was Isidore Marie Auguste FranÐ*ois Xavier Comte. Auguste Comte was born into a catholic family. He embraced the religion in his early life, but around age 14 he decided that he no longer believed in God. He was also born into a royalist family. He later abandoned the political views taught by his family and became a republican. These changes in his views led to strained relationships with his family members throughout his life. He had one sister. His sister, along with his father, was continuously complaining of ill health. His mother did not have the same complaints but she was known to coddle her son. Auguste later on called his family "covetous and hypocritical" but reasons as to why were never really supported very well. He complained various times (rather vocally) about how his father and sister's poor health was the reason that the family had little money and could not pay for Auguste's desires to pursue a literary career. He was also married to Caroline Massin, but they divorced in 1842. He was also reported as being in love with Clotilde de Vaux from 1844 until her death in 1846. Clearly the angst and anger within Comte that was derived from his feelings toward his family changed the way he looked at different things. It obviously affected both his religious and political views.

During the time period in which Auguste Comte lived people believed in many interesting things. Fetishism was something that was fairly popular trend/belief. People would see things (often times just everyday objects) and they would declare them to have supernatural powers. These items became something of a worship toy during this time period. Most people in this time period simply believed whatever they were taught by their ancestors. They would just blindly pursue the teachings of the past whether they were valid or not.

Auguste Comte attended the Ecole Polytechnique which was a leading scientific institution in France at the time. Later he was kicked out of this school for leading a student protest against the manners of one of the school tutors. Auguste Comte was considered the founder of French positivism. He is even sometimes credited for creating the term "sociology." While Comte was studying the human mind he developed a philosophy. This was the philosophy of positivism. This led to his views of the three stages of the history of sciences which was one of the first theories of social evolutionism. These three stages were (in order):

1) Theological - nature has its own will. This stage is broken down into three more stages, including animism (often substituted with fetishism), polytheism, and monotheism.

2) Metaphysical state (also called Abstract