ABSTRACT
Saint-Simon, Comte, and the Positivist Movement in general advocated the development of a new positive outlook, or Positive Philosophy, founded upon the certainties of science.1 The old traditions and values no longer moved people, society was in a state of chaos and anarchy, and the eighteenth century Enlightenment had not stemmed but had contributed to the decline. What therefore was needed was a new basis of intellectual, moral and social life. This would be provided by the methods, findings and instrumental utility of science; sociology would be the crowning pinnacle in this new order. The problems of the emergent industrial society (of competition, social conflict, ideas of free enterprise) were seen as scientifically calculable. Social and political beliefs could be matched to the scientifically possible. The discovery of the laws of social physics would ensure that people accept the inevitable and would only change that which could be changed. Order and progress were seen as reconcilable, the working class in particular would believe in the social ethic of science and industry, and the realm of the social or Society would be omnipotent. Let us consider Comte’s argument in detail, beginning with his view of science.
