ABSTRACT
The logic of Comte’s second career becomes clear in the 1848 Discourse. Unlike the Discourse of 1844 (which was a preface to a treatise on geometry) it is essentially an introduction to sociology in a religious mode. But in order to read and locate the motor in Comte’s theory it is essential to bear in mind that all the description of the positive polity itself lies in the realm of fiction, the ideal type; it is utopian writing, and expressly so. But he attempts to complete the prediction of his theory by his own actions in inaugurating the final cult, opening what has classically has called ‘the paradox of prediction’ (Friedrichs, 1972: 177-89). Once Comtean theory fell into this paradox, his sociology would inevitably become sterile.
