Auguste Comte: Sociology and the New Politics

Abstract

Auguste Comte regarded political forces as of secondary importance. He sought to penetrate beneath forms of government and legislation to discover the deeper springs of social action, such as morality and spiritual power. Accordingly he was led to deny the validity of traditional political concepts. The notion of rights, of the separation of powers, and of the sovereignty of the people, he discarded as useless baggage inherited from a metaphysical and unscientific age. In particular he was eager to devitalize the concept of political authority, which he would replace with the concept of technical direction on the part of captains of industry. In Comte's philosophy, liberty is based on social function. Its guaranty is to be found in the subjection of social phenomena to natural laws, and in the subjection of politics to morality. New theories of the state reflect the positivism of Auguste Comte. The concept of sovereingnty is being challenged in certain quarters. The individualistic basis of rights is under re-examination. Expertness and technical direction are being prized more highly than formerly. Democracy is under fire.