Auguste Count , Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Count of his complete name, born the January 19th 1798 with Montpellier, dead the September 5th 1857 with Paris was a Philosophe positivist French. He is often regarded in France as the founder of the Sociologie, term which he will take again of Sieyès. He is based on sciences known as " positives" , called today " exactes" or " dures" , to define laws of social organization.

Auguste Count was disciple of Claude Henri de Rouvroy (Saint-Simon).

Biography

Auguste (it will retain only its third Prénom) Count studies with the college of Montpellier. He loses the Foi at the 14 years age. He is received with the Polytechnic school in the first in 1814. He is called Sganarelle by the pupils of his Promotion, or the philosopher . He supplements his formation by the reading of works of David Hume, Condorcet, Joseph de Maistre, Bonald, Bichat, and Gall.

With the Restoration, in April 1816, all its Promotion is congédiée for lack of Discipline. It finds in 1817 a post of secretary near Saint-Simon (Claude-Henri de Rouvroy, count of Saint-Simon, not to confuse with the duke of Saint-Simon author of the memories of the court of Louis XIV), with which it collaborates on various works until a stormy rupture in 1824.

He knows a first woman in 1825, Caroline Massin, former prostitute, and would like to leave it his condition by giving him course of Mathématiques. He marries it (civil wedding). His/her mother forces Auguste Count to marry " officiellement" with the Church.

He meets Lamennais. He attends the burial of Saint-Simon and takes part towards end 1825 - beginning 1826 with the reflections on the need for new general doctrines.

Thus it begins in 1826 its course from positive philosophy , but must quickly stop it because of a serious depression, which it describes itself as cerebral episode, probably with the control of its wife. He wanders during 10 days with Montmorency from where he writes a note with Mr. de Blainville. He makes a eight month stay at the hospital of Esquirol, which he leaves with the mention " NG" (not cured) then tries to commit suicide. In spite of the failure with obtaining a Polytechnique professorship, it publishes between 1830 and 1842 four volumes composing its Cours of positive philosophy .

In spite of its republican opinions, it is named repeater of analysis and of mechanics (1832) then inspector of entry (1836) with Polytechnique at the same time as his prestige grows. His wife leaves it in 1842.

It continues to give Cours of Mathématiques. It is in this way that it meets in 1845 Clotilde of Are worth , sister of the one of her pupils. It falls passionately in love with the young woman. Alas, this one wishes that they remain friendly and dies the following year, on April 5th, of the Tuberculose.

At this point in time its thought evolves to a form of Religiosité: to make its mourning, it is essential loneliness and develops a " religion" of humanity. It loses little by little its stations. It founds in 1848 the company positivist. At the political level, it is filled with enthusiasm for the revolution of 1848. It is interested in the question of the proletariat and tries to rejoin the working world with its philosophy, without success. It is also interested in the function of the State and makes so that the Collège de France creates a pulpit of general history of the positive Sciences. It supports the coup d'etat of 1851 after having been very critical with respect to Napoleon III, which causes the disorder among its disciples. Littré share.

Loneliness does not prevent it from keeping up to date with the businesses with the world: it maintains an important correspondence: 3000 letters sent and 6000 received. It becomes the " high priest of the humanité" and publishes the system of positive policy between 1851 and 1854 as well as a " catechism " positivist in 1852 and the subjective synthesis in 1856.

In 1852, the Academy withdraws its station of repeater to him. It founds the " Review occidentale". Positive philosophy is translated into English in 1856.

He dies on September 5th 1857 and is buried with the Cimetière of the Father-Lachaise. A Statue representing humanity was set up in 1983 on its tomb. Its statue, places Sorbonne, was recently moved at the request of Claude Allègre.

Auguste Count had a child of a first woman, whom it did not raise. Once arrived at Paris, it did not leave certain districts of the capital and did not travel to Europe, contrary to Descartes or good of other philosophers.

Doctrines: positivism

One develops in this article the doctrines of Auguste Count, like in two other articles:

See also: Law of the three states

See also: religious Positivism

On the developments of positivism in general:

See also: Positivism

Sources of its thought

Auguste Count draws his references in philosophies of the 17th century and 18th century, except for Roger Bacon who is the only former source:

  • Roger Bacon: Count will retain ideas of this large thinker franciscain of the 13th century the criticism of certain designs of the 13th century, which were lacking as regards Experimental method.

  • Francis Bacon: with which Count shares the preoccupation with a philosophy first. On the other hand Count ignores another empirist of this time, Robert Boyle.
  • Rene Descartes of course: Count claims himself the successor of Descartes, of which it retains the analytical reasoning, but not the principle of the Métaphysique; he does not share the concern of an intuition of the principles first,
  • David Hume;
  • Charles of Brushes, ethnologist of the 18th century, of which it takes up the ideas on the Fétichisme of the people known as primitive;
  • Condorcet : on the concept of progress by sciences;
  • Joseph de Maistre;
  • Louis de Bonald;
  • Claude Henri de Rouvroy, count of Saint-Simon: undoubtedly the character who had the most influence on him, since he was his Master of 1816 with 1823; their separation was more the consequence of a mutual incompatibility that divergences of thoughts;
  • Xavier Bichat: Count is very influenced by physiology (see Raquel Capurro);
  • Franz Joseph Gall.

The Psychoanalyst Raquel Capurro note that the ideas positivists, in particular the concept of Large-Being associated with Humanity (with a capital letter), already germinates about it before Auguste Count, draw their roots in the Culte of the Reason and in the worship of the supreme Être, which took place during the extreme phases of the French revolution.

General ideas

The Doctrine positivist of Count is related on confidence in the Progrès of humanity by sciences and to the belief in the benefits of the scientific rationality.

The term of positivism existed already before Count. One spoke already about positive sciences at the end of the 18th century. Saint-Simon employed already the term of positivism. Auguste Count, who was his secretary during six years, spread it in philosophy.

Auguste Count with the ambition to get rid of the Metaphysical : its philosophical step is unaware of deliberately the main causes and moves away definitively from the philosophical concepts developed by Aristote, already chahuté by Descartes.

The Connaissance must rest, according to Count, on the Observation of the reality measured in a scientific way and not on Connaissance S a priori . The Positivisme thus constitutes a systematization of the Rationalisme accompanied by a kind of absolute confidence in the science, based on a Déterminisme Mécaniste.

However the position of Count is ambiguous. On the one hand, he affirms that a proposal cannot have direction if it is not reducible with the statement of a fact; in addition, he criticizes the Empirisme and claims Kant and of Leibniz to affirm that exist at the Homme “ mental provisions ” spontaneous.

Henri de Lubac, in the Drama of atheistic humanism , devotes a section to Auguste Count, like Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Feuerbach.

Two distinct phases

The philosophy of Auguste Count can break up into two phases which correspond to each woman that he knew.

The first phase, which proceeds 1830 with 1842, corresponds so that one calls scientific positivism or philosophical positivism. As of this time, Count starts to be interested in the principles of social organization, by taking again the term of sociology (1839), already employed by Sieyès.

The second phase, which proceeds 1846 with 1857, corresponds so that one calls sometimes positivism religious, although the system imagined by Count does not have anything a Religion.

Scientific positivism

Law of the three states

The principles of scientific positivism or philosophical positivism, are described in the course of positive philosophy, published 1830 with 1842. Auguste Count exposes a theory to it known as law of the three states.

For Auguste Count, the Positivisme is related to the emergence of the age of science characteristic of “ the positive state ” which succeeds, in the “ law of the three states ”, with “ the theological state ” and with “ the metaphysical state ”.

The theological state

Also called theological age or “ fictitious ”, it corresponds to that of the age of the Enfance of the Humanité; in which the Spirit research the cause of the Phenomenon S either while allotting to the objects of the intentions (cf Fétichisme), or by supposing the existence of supernatural beings (Religion polytheist) or of only one God (Monothéisme).

The metaphysical state

Also called metaphysical age or “ abstract ”, it corresponds to that of the Adolescence of the Pensée; in which the supernatural agents are replaced by the abstract forces :

  • the “Natural ” of Spinoza,

  • the “ God geometrician ” of Descartes,
  • the “ Matter ” of Diderot,
  • the “ Reason ” of the Age of Enlightenment.

This time is a progress compared to the anthropomorphic Pensée former. But the Pensée remains captive of Concept S philosophical abstract and universal. One brings back the Réalité to principles first. It is the “ Méthode of the philosopher ”, written Auguste Count.

The positive state

Also called positive age , it is described like “ the virile state of our intelligence ”. The positive spirit rejects the research of the “ why ultimate ” of the things to consider the facts, “ their laws effective, i.e. their invariable relations of succession and similarity ” ( Cours, I ). The recourse to the facts, with the Expérimentation, the proof Réalité is what makes it possible to leave the speculative speeches. It is the first principle of the Positivisme. Whereas the metaphysical spirit resorts to Concept S eternal and universal, that it does not subject to the Réalité, the positive spirit confronts the Hypothèse S to him with the real-world.

“Religious” positivism

See also: Church positivist

For the exact significance of the " term; religion" , to see detailed article Religion .

In this phase, Auguste Count seeks to reconcile the principles of scientific rationality with the human love, which he discovered by his meeting with Clotilde of Are worth. After the death of Clotilde (1846), it dedicates a worship to him which it describes as Fétichisme.

Count was indeed influenced at this stage of his thought by the studies of the Ethnologue Charles of Brushes on the Fétichisme of the people known as primitive. He considered that fetishism was rather a manifestation of the simplicity of these people, in opposition to the pride of the occident. One cannot thus consider that Count was at the origin of the Racialisme, since these doctrines were developed later on.

In this phase, Count considers that its private life relates to all humanity. He seeks to reorganize his former philosophical system and develops the principles of organization which must, according to him, to found the human society. “The religion thus constitutes for the heart, a normal process exactly comparable with that of health towards the body. ” (in Systems of positive policy )

According to Raymond Aron carrying out a second analysis of Auguste Count: “The man needs religion because it needs to like something which exceeds it. The companies need religion because they need a spiritual power, which devotes and moderates the temporal power and reminds the men that the hierarchy capacities is nothing beside the hierarchy merits. ”

Count is brought to define a morals, which it bases on the Ordre, the Progrès and the Altruisme. He aims at the good of the Humanity defined as Great person, of which he is the " large prêtre".

For the exact significance of the " term; prêtre" , to see detailed article priest .

The theory which it erects scaffolding supports on a classification of sciences which it itself set up. The numbers and logic constitute the base of it.

Classification itself comprises five sciences:

  • Mathematical
  • the Astronomy
  • the Physical which is pressed on this first base
  • the Chimie,
  • the Biologie.
These five sciences are crowned by the Sociologie. The term is taken again of saint-Simon.

The principles of the Sociologie according to Count are developed in the Système of positive policy, published between 1851 and 1854.

For Count, sociology is the integration of the assets of other sciences to face the most complex object which is: the “ human society ”.

The Sociologie makes it possible to know at the same time the laws of organization of the company (“ static social ”) and that of its evolution (“ dynamic social ”). With the Sociology, Auguste Count also thinks of solving the social problems . Because its goal will be also to solve the problem of the Social organization: “ To know to envisage, envisage to be able ”.

Position of Henri de Lubac

About the law of the three states, Henri de Lubac in the drama of atheistic humanism (Stag), thinks that " what Count took for three successive states, they are well rather three coexistent modes of the thought, corresponding to three aspects of the things; that progress consists in better and better distinguishing these three aspects, perceived initially in a kind of chaotic unit; if thus it is true to say that physics (understanding by this word any science) started by being theological, it would be quite as true to say that theology started by being physical, and the law of the evolution does not tend more to evacuate theology that science, but with the " purifier" one and the other by differentiating them. Henri de Lubac refers to Robert Flint, the philosophy of the French history and in Germany (1894, tr. Carran, 1878). The theological state would be thus the state of primitive confusion where a science and a religion also in childhood are. These sights were taken again Mr. Jacques Maritain, distinguishing the state " nocturne" and the solar state of science and the religion: sign and symbol, Revue thomist, 1938. One the three states to Count to the orders of Andre Count-Sponville in is capitalism could bring closer moral? (Albin Michel): technico-economic order, politico-legal order, order of morals, and ethical order.

Posterity

See also: Positivism

First influences: medicine

It is by the medical environments of the Société positivist (Doctor Robinet, Pierre Laffitte) that the thought of Auguste Count first of all developed. The thought of Count was transmitted besides to the Latin America by doctors who had made their studies in Paris.

Then the ideas of Auguste Count were spread very largely in France as of second half of the 19th century, via its two principal works:

  • the Course of positive philosophy on the scientific aspects,
  • but also the System of positive policy of the phase " religious " , for the social aspects and policies.
Other works like the " catéchisme" positivist or the subjective synthesis also diffused these doctrines, in particular near Charles Maurras.

Principal influenced fields

Details: Fields influenced by positivism

Geographical extension

Details: geographical Extension

The influence was felt in part of Europe.

In the Anglo-Saxon world, positivism appeared by certain forms of Altruisme, which through John Stuart Mill join the theories Utilitariste S of Jeremy Bentham. Herbert Spencer also was subject to the positivist influence. The the United States were influenced through English positivism.

In Latin America, Raquel Capurro note that they are doctors who brought the Positivisme through the revolutionary movements which occurred on this continent. It took a scientific form or " religieuse" according to the cases.

What remains of its thought today

Evolutions in epistemological research

Auguste Count believed in his time that it was possible to explain the world by reducible laws purely Scientifique the S with least the Nombre, as this Citation shows it:

“ the fundamental character of positive philosophy is to look at all the phenomena like taxable people with invariable natural laws, of which the precise discovery and the reduction with the least possible number are the goal of all our efforts, while regarding as absolutely inaccessible and meaningless the search for what is called the causes either first, or finales ”.

(Extracted from Course of positive philosophy , 1830 - 1842, volume I, 16).

It was seen that Henri de Lubac considers that the Loi of the three states corresponds not to successions of states in the Histoire, but with three aspects of the things. The four orders were as seen as distinguishes André Count-Sponville.

Rene Rémond speaks about Positivisme through certain forms of Esthétique.

In fact, research epistemological S of the 20th century showed that the postulates Positiviste S are erroneous. Auguste Count propagated a Représentation world Héliocentrique (see épistémè). This vision Mécaniste was popularized at the 19th century by the Romance S of Jules Verne. It does not correspond at all to the contemporary vision of the Univers which the contemporary Astrophysique gives today (see Cosmologie).

Henri Poincaré, one of the precursors of the theory of the Relativity, gave a brought up to date vision of science in the Value of Science (1905). The Psychanalyste Raquel Capurro speaks, about the Positivisme, of a worship of deaths.

Rule of Auguste Count

A statue of Auguste Count was inaugurated in 1902 place of the Sorbonne, under the presidency of the Général Andre, in the presence of members of the company positivist.

Claude Allègre, author of a Dictionary in love with science , wished to unbolt this statue. Arrived at the post of minister of Education, it tried to make disappear this statue to replace it by those of Victor Hugo and Louis Pasteur. The minister reproached indeed Auguste Count and Postivistes to have in their time opposed to the concept of atom, the use of the microscope, of that of the telescope and to the probability theory. He also reproached Count for having established " a classification of sciences whose damage in the spirits still makes devastations aujour' hui" (LIVELY C., a Little science for everyone , 2003, p. 34). Claude Allègre simply succeeds in moving the statue and making it swivel of 90°, so that it " turn almost the back on the Sorbonne ".

Quotation

  • “humanity is composed of more than deaths than of alive. ”

Random links:Viscache | Clerogamy | Poppée | Kfar-Hahoresh | Timothy Treadwell