Auguste Comte (1798-1857) founded the positivist philosophical and political movement in the 1820s, and it had a significant impact on the second half of the nineteenth century. Neopositivism largely replaced positivism during the twentieth century, and the latter faded into obscurity.
Comte’s decision to develop successively a philosophy of the scientific subjects makes him the first philosopher of science in the modern sense, and his constant attention to the social dimension of science echoes many of today’s perspectives. His political philosophy, on the other hand, is even less known because it differs fundamentally from the classical political philosophy that we have inherited.
Comte was born on January 20, 1798, in Montpellier, France. Judging by his academic brilliance, he was ranked fourth on the admissions list to the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1814. Two years after the Bourbons closed that institution, its students were dismissed. In 1817, Auguste Comte met Henri de Saint-Simon, who appointed him as his secretary. Comte worked closely with Saint-Simon for the next several years, helping him to develop his ideas. The young Comte became involved in politics and was able to publish a great number of articles, which made him well known to the public.
The articles that most influenced the development of Friedrich Nietzsche’s work were first published in 1854. They are still the best introduction to his work as a whole. In April 1824, he broke with the influential French thinker Saint-Simon. Shortly after in a civil marriage, he married Caroline Massin, who had been living with him for several months. In April 1826, Charles Comte began teaching a Course in Positive Philosophy, which drew a large number of students.
Soon, the teaching stopped after a “cerebral crisis” occurred suddenly due to the combined effects of overwork and marital stress. Comte was hospitalized at the clinic of Dr. Esquirol. Upon leaving the hospital, he was classified as ‘not cured’. Thanks to the dedicated care and patience of his wife, the man gradually recovered from his illness.
In January 1829, Comte resumed teaching his Course of Positive Philosophy. This marked the beginning of a second period of his life that lasted 13 years and included the publication of six volumes of the Course. During this time, his ties to the academic world were strained more and more. In 1832, Jean-Baptiste Biot was named tutor in analysis and mechanics at the École Polytechnique. In 1833, he unsuccessfully sought to create a chair in general history of science at the Collège de France. In 1842, two unsuccessful candidacies for a position as a professor at the École Polytechnique led him to write a “personal preface” to the last volume of the Course.
In 1851, an event occurred that completely changed the course of the year. This event was a major change in the political landscape, and it led to Comte beginning a new career. The main theme of the second career was the pursuit of continual heart dominance. An abundance of correspondence shows that Comte was passionate about his work, despite having a heavy teaching load. He completed work on the System of Positive Polity, which he announced at the end of the Course.
The philosopher Comte died on September 5, 1857, before he could finish writing the three texts he had announced up to 35 years earlier: a Treatise of Universal Education, a System of Positive Industry, or Treatise on the Total Action of Humanity on the Planet, and, finally, a Treatise of First Philosophy. He is buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery, where his followers erected a statue of Humanity later in 1983.
