Auguste Comte

**Auguste Comte** (full name:  **Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte**; January 17, 1798 – September 5, 1857) was a French thinker.  He was one of the founders of sociology. He created the word from the Latin: _socius_, "companion"; and the suffix _-ology_, "the study of", from Greek λόγος, _lógos_, "knowledge" ) He also started a way of thinking about and understanding human knowledge called  positivism.

## Life

Comte was born on 19 January 1798 at Montpellier, in southern France. After attending the University of Montpellier, one of the oldest European universities, Comte was admitted to the École Polytechnique in Paris.

He married Caroline Massin, but divorced in 1842.

He died in Paris on 5 September 1857 and is buried at the famous Cimetière du Père Lachaise. His apartment from 1841-1857 is now conserved as the Maison d'Auguste Comte.

## Law of three stages

The law of three stages is a socio-historical idea of Auguste Comte.  Comte said that knowledge developed in three stages. The first stage is the "theological" stage, in which Comte says that people use religion or gods to explain why things happen or where things came from.  The second stage is the "metaphysical" or "abstract" stage, where people use philosophy and abstract ideas to think about their beliefs and explain things.  The last stage is the "positive", regarding to the three stages of positivism. Comte said that society could shift into a positivist society if the sciences, including sociology, are all used to explain things.

## Works

- Comte, A.; Bridges, J.H. (tr.); _A General View of Positivism_; Trubner and Co., 1865 (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; )
- Comte, A; Martineau, H. (tr.); _The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte_; 2 volumes; Chapman, 1853 (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ) (but note that C.U.P. say "Martineau's abridged and more easily digestible version of Comte's work was intended to be readily accessible to a wide general readership, particularly those she felt to be morally and intellectually adrift", so this is not really Comte's own writings)
- Comte, A.; _System of Positive Polity_; various publishers
- Comte, A.; _Cours de Philosophie Positive, Tome II_; Bachelier, Paris, 1835, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31882/31882-h/31882-h.htm; scans of the six volumes are at Projet Gallica

## Related pages

- List of sociologists from Europe

## Other websites

- Selections from first volume of _Cours of positive philosophy_
- Auguste Comte quotes
- Auguste Comte and Positivism

## Infobox (philosopher)

- **region**: Western philosophy
- **era**: 19th-century philosophy
- **image**: Auguste Comte.jpg
- **caption**: Auguste Comte by Tony Touillon
- **name**: Auguste Comte
- **birth name**: Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte
- **birth place**: Montpellier, French First Republic, France
- **death place**: Paris, Second French Empire, France
- **alma mater**: University of Montpellier
École Polytechnique
- **nationality**: France, French
- **spouse**: Caroline Massin (m. 1825–1842)
- **children**: Sophie Bliaux-Comte (Adult adoption, adopted)
- **influences**: Francis Bacon, Bacon, Marie François Xavier Bichat, Bichat, Nicolas de Condorcet, Condorcet, René Descartes, Descartes, Henri de Saint-Simon, Saint-Simon, Denis Diderot
- **influenced**: Émile Littré, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Nietzsche, Herbert Spencer, Émile Durkheim, Charles Maurras, Harriet Martineau, Pierre Laffitte, Eugen Dühring, George Henry Lewes, Edward Spencer Beesly, Frederic Harrison
- **notable ideas**: Sociological positivism, law of three stages, encyclopedic law, altruism