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Law of Three Stages

Auguste Comte

“Moise Nicoară” National College Arad, Romania

Project presented by: Adomnicăi Christian, Debreni Ana, Herman Alexis,

Maci Diana, Şteţcu Arthur, Vacariu Robert

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Auguste Comte

regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term

his ideas were fundamental to the development of sociology

developed the law of three stages

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Law of Three Stages

Comte’s ideas relating to the law of three stages reveal that people:

are becoming more and more rational and scientific in their approach

gradually giving up speculations, imagination etc.

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Law of Three Stages

The notion, “law of three stages” was discussed in his book “Positive philosophy”, which imply that, society, individual mind, world history and each science had passed through the following progressive law of three stages.

Each science

World history

Individual mind

Society

had passed through the following progressive law of three stages

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Law of Three Stages

Positive

Metaphysical

Theological

First stage

Second stage

Third stage

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Theological Stage

It characterized the world prior to 1300 A.D and it is the first stage of law of three stages.

It was believed that all the activities of men were guided and governed by supernatural power.

It was marked by lack of logical and orderly thinking.

This stage was dominated by priests and military men.

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Theological Stage

The inability to attribute logical explanations to different natural happenings determined belief in imaginary or divine forces.

Comte had divided the theological stage into the following four stages:

This stage implied believing in the existence of a parallel world wherein reside the divine forces that control and influence events on earth

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Theological Substages

Fetishism

-a kind of belief that there exists some living spirit in the non-living objects.

Anthropomorphism

-gradual development in human thinking results in an enhancement in the human thinking which resulted in the development of this stage

Polytheism

-more evolved and developed than fetishism and anthropomorphism.

-It means believing in many Gods. Each God had some definite function

Monotheism

-replaced the earlier belief in many Gods by the belief in one God. ‘Mono’ means one.

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Metaphysical Stage

This is the second stage which occurred roughly between 1300 and 1800 A.D.;

An abstract power of force guided and determined all the events of the world.;

There was development of reason in human thinking;

By this, man got to think that it was the supernatural being that controlled and guided all the activities;

An extension of theological stage. Reason and rationality was growing;

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Metaphysical Stage

Metaphysical thinking discards belief in God. The nature of enquiry was legal was rational in nature;

So it was the mere modification of the first one which discarded belief in God;

At this stage the position of supernatural power of the first stage is taken over by the abstract principles;

Reason replaced imagination. People tried to believe that God is an abstract being.

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Positive Stage

The last and the final stage of human thinking or human mind
Entered into the world in 1800
It is also called scientific stage

This stage was characterized by belief in Science. People now tended to give up the search for absolute causes (God or Nature) and concentrated instead on observation of the social and physical world in the search for the laws governing them.

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Positive Stage

The warriors were replaced by industrialists. Observation predominates over imagination.

Positive stage

According to Comte observation and classification of facts were the beginning of the scientific knowledge.

It was governed by industrial administrators and scientific moral guides.

At this stage the priests or the theologians were replaced by scientists.

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Positive Stage

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Conclusion

Although all three stages may coexist, Comte believes that the positive stage benefits humanity most.

The development of sociology, which he considered the most complex science,could only be done after the rest of the sciences it is based on,made the transition to the positive stage.