Know the criticisms of sociology. The scientific study of the hierarchical arrangements of humans and positions in society. The study of social processes in an urban area. We have discussed Comte at length in other lectures and will not discuss too much about him today. However, it is important to remember that Comte s agenda for sociology as a new science was to apply the positive methods of natural science to politics and to history.
Positivism is, above all, a philosophy of science.
As such, it stands squarely within the empirical tradition. Metaphysical speculation is rejected in favor of positive knowledge based on systematic observation and experiment. Since the character of society flows from the intellectual forms, which predominate in it, this gives Comte a law of the development of human society itself. Criticism of positivism commonly focus on the inappropriateness of natural-scientific methods in the human social sciences.