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Birth
Born in Montpellier, France -
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Positivism
Comte is the founder of Positivism which is an ideology that corresponds with the scientific method. To gather reliable and authentic knowledge the scientific method must be used through experimentation, measurements, observations, tests, and verifications. -
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Positivism
Prior to the 19th century, knowledge was obtained through speculation, guesswork, and the imagination rather than using the scientific method. Therefore, positive knowledge is also called scientific knowledge.
The 19th century was in the positivists stage of science and contained a hierarchy of sciences starting with -
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The Course of Positive Philosophy
Published in a series of 6 books, these outlined the use scientific techniques in all natural and social sciences were the only route to acquire knowledge. -
Sociology
Comte is the father of Sociology. Coining this term in 1838, Comte posited that the study of the structure and function of society needed to be its own entity, separate from general philosophy, as it had not been prior to this year. It was believed that social science was not as exact and didn’t require precise experimentation compared to natural science. However, Comte believed social phenomena could be studied using the scientific method just like natural phenomena. -
A General Rule of Positivism
Through this book, Comte suggested that the scientific method when used to conduct experiments, measurement, testing and so on, would create evidence that is verifiable and stand true in any given situation. -
Death
Died in Paris, France
