Auguste Comte and the Nebular Hypothesis

Abstract

Although acknowledged as influential and seminal, Auguste Comte, except for the usual mention of the law of three stages, has not received the attention he merits during the present century.1 He tends to be considered a social scientist by historians and he is usually studied because of his influence on J. S. Mill, Spencer, Marx and the development of the social sciences.2 Many of his most interesting and original methodological insights have remained unexplored because they fall between the usual fields of investigation. Few historians of science have accepted Tannery’s evaluation that The synthetic exposition of the mathematical, physical and natural sciences, given by A. Comte in his Cours de Philosophie Positive, constitutes a historical document of invaluable importance on the state of the sciences and of scientific ideas at the beginning of the XIXth century.3 Since Comte is an “outsider”, and in the shadow of Cabanis, Bichat, Cuvier, de Blainville, Larmarck, G. St. Hilaire, most investigations of the internal history of the biological sciences of that period have neglected him. There exists no modern study which assesses Comte’s contribution to evolutionary scientific thought.4 Yet as I shall show his influence was considerable.5