"The first characteristic of Positive Philosophy is that
it regards all phenomena as subject ot invariable natural Laws. . . .Our
real business is to analyze accurately the circumstances of phenomena,
and to connect them by the natural relations of succession and resemblance"
(Comte, 1830, 5-6).
"For it is only by knowing the laws of phenomena, and
thus being able to foresee them, that we can . . . set them to modify one
another for our advantage. . . . Whenever we effect anything great it is
through a knowledge of natural laws. . . . From Science come Prevision;
from Prevision comes Action" (The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte
I, 20-21)
"We shall find that there is no chance of order and agreement
but in subjecting social phenomena, like all others, to invariable natural
laws, which shall, as a whole, prescribe for each period, with entire certainty,
the limits and character of social action" (I, p. 216).
"The office of science is not to govern, but to modify
phenomena; and to do this it is necessary to understand their laws"
(II, p. 240).
On Methods:
"No social fact can have any scientific meaning till it
is connected with some other social facts" (II, p. 245).
"If it is true that every theory must be based upon observed
facts, it is equally true that facts cannot be observed without the guidance
of some theory" (Comte, 1830, p. 4).
"No real observation of any phenomena is possible, except
in so far as it is first directed, and finally interpreted, by some theory"
(Comte, 1830, p. 243).
"Experimentation takes place whenever the regular course
of the phenomenon is interfered with in any determinate manner. . . . Pathological
cases are the true scientific equivalent of pure experimentation" (II,
p. 245).
[The chief method for the social scientist] "consists
in a comparison of the different co-existing states of human society on
the various parts of the earth's surface--these states being completely
independent of each other. By this method, the different stages of
evolution may all be observed at once" (II, p. 249).
"The historical comparison of the consecutive states of
humanity is not only the chief scientific device of the new political philosophy
. . . it constitutes the substratum of the science, in whatever is essential
to it" ((II, p. 251).
On the Division of Labor:
[Men and women are] "bound together by the very distribution
of their occupations; and it is this distribution which causes the extent
and growing complexity of the social organism (II, p. 292).
"The social organization tends more and more to rest on
an exact estimate of individual diversities, by so distributing employments
as to appoint each one to the destination he is most fit for, from his
own nature. . . , from his education and his position, and, in short, from
all his qualifications; so that all individual organizations, even the
most vicious and imperfect . . ., may finally be made use of for the general
good" (II, p. 292).
"If the separation of social functions develops a useful
spirit of detail, on the one hand, it tends on the other, to extinguish
or to restrict what we may call the aggregate of general spirit.
In the same way, in moral relations, while each individual is in close
dependence on the mass, he is drawn away from it by the expansion of his
special activity, constantly recalling him to his private interest, which
he but very dimly perceives to be related to the public. . . . The inconveniences
of the division of functions increase with its characteristic advantages"
(II, p. 293).
[Temporal and spiritual power should unite] "to keep up
the idea of the whole, and the feeling of the common interconnection"
(II, p. 294).
On Functionalism:
"There must always be a spontaneous harmony between the
parts and the whole of the social system. . . . It is evident that not
only must political institutions and social manners, on the one hand, and
manner and ideas on the other, be always mutually
connected; but further that this consolidated whole must
always be connected, by its nature, with the corresponding state of the
integral development of humanity" (II, p. 222).
Sources:
Martineau, Harriet. (Translator) 1896. The Positive
Philosophy of Auguste Comte, Volumes I, II, and III. London: Bell.