Auguste Comte and Sociology

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the beginnings of sociology and the role played by French philosopher, Auguste Comte. The paper attempts to answer the question of whether Comte really was the father of sociology or whether he was the father of the obscure philosophy of positivism.

From the Paper:

"The French philosopher Auguste Comte is often called the father of sociology. Although Comte cannot merit the status of such a title of intellectual founding father status in perhaps the way Freud delineated the vocabulary and discourse of analysis-after all, 'Comtian' is not a capitalized, adjective in the same way that 'Freudian' has come to be a common form of slang for all matters pertaining to repression and parental relations in psychology. Still, Comte certainly provided, through his founding of the philosophy of positivism, the theoretical structure that enabled the discipline of sociology to become 'possible.' Comte not only coined the phrases that became common to sociological discourse, and also the term of the study of human society itself, but was the first philosopher to place the human being in the context of a social element, rather than to view the self as a mere soul, apart from the rest of society."

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