ABSTRACT
Although Auguste Comte was an authoritarian, he worked under the influence of some eighteenth-century theorists. In connection with individualism he was an opponent of the Enlightenment's libertarianism. Armed with the rationalistic spirit of the philosophes Comte proposed to study the impact of social factors on individuals. Comte undermined atomic individualism and restored the old society with its hierarchies. Comte repudiated the Reaction on the grounds that it is impossible to stop history, and he was perfectly correct. Comte had in mind reintroducing the old spiritual power exercised by the priests in order to preach the highly authoritarian principle of humanity embodied in his positive science. Comte advanced a new order to serve the purpose of social cohesion, but he proposed to incorporate fresh economic material. Comte had in mind reintroducing the old spiritual power exercised by the priests in order to preach the highly authoritarian principle of humanity embodied in his positive science.
