Auguste Comte: The Founder of Positivism | Sociology

Auguste Comte: The Founder of Positivism

We should keep in mind that there is a long history of atheistic thinkers who have endeavored to strike a balance between mistrust of religion's supernatural components and profound compassion for and interest in its ceremonial features. The imaginative, eccentric, and sporadically sane French philosopher Auguste Comte was the most significant and inspirational of them. Comte was born in Montpelier, southern France, in 1798 into a devoted Catholic family. He had a very advanced education as a young man and became obsessed with the idea of building a new kind of France that was founded on republicanism and science.

His family disapproved and severed ties with him, so he moved to Paris and became a student of, and eventually secretary to, Utopian thinker Henri de Saint-Simon. But Comte had a fractious personality and fell out with Simon, was denied a university position, and lived a difficult existence for the remainder of his life authoring thick, often incomprehensible books about human change. He was not completely insane and spent extended periods in asylums. In 1827, he attempted suicide by jumping over the Pont des Arts in Paris. In 1844, he fell profoundly in love with a married woman named Clotilde de Vaux. Following her untimely death, Comte centered his religious thought on his love for Clotilde.

Despite being a highly odd man, Comte managed to acquire the confidence and interest of the great British philosopher, John Stuart Mill, who respected his religious endeavors and helped Comte become more well-known in Britain. Simultaneously, Comte recognized, as did many of his more rational contemporaries, that a secular society devoted solely to financial accumulation and romantic love, and devoid of any sources of consolation transcendent awe of solidarity, would succumb to some unsustainable social and emotional illness. Comte's approach was neither to adhere to religious traditions blindly, nor to dismiss them collectively and belligerently, but rather to select the most useful and secular parts and combine them with ideas taken from philosophy, art, and science.

What was the ultimate result? Comte's intellectual achievement culminated in the creation of a new religion: a religion for atheists, or "A Religion of Humanity," as Comte called it: an original creed expressly tailored to the emotional and intellectual needs of modern men and women, rather than the inhabitants of Judea or northern India in 400 B.C. Comte's new religion was available in two volumes: "Summary Exposition of the Universal Religion" and "Theory of Man's Future." He observed that ancient faiths strove to consolidate their power by providing individuals with daily, and even hourly, schedules of who or what to think about. Rotors are frequently connected with the commemoration of a saint or a supernatural occurrence.

As a result, Comte created his own calendar, fueled by a pantheon of secular heroes and ideas. Every month in Religion of Humanity was to be dedicated to a major field of endeavors, such as marriage, motherhood, art, science, or agriculture, and every day to a person who had made a significant contribution within these categories. Comte was attracted by how traditional faiths imparted moral instruction, such as establishing guidelines for how to conduct oneself in marriage or fulfill one's societal obligations. And he grieved that, to be inoffensive to all constituencies, contemporary liberal governments had settled on just offering factual education before releasing individuals into the world to murder themselves and others via egoism and self-ignorance.

As a result, lessons and sermons under Comte's Religion of Humanity would help inspire one to be a loving spouse, patient with one's coworkers, and sympathetic towards the unfortunate. Clotilde portraits were to be displayed throughout the new religion, and anybody who was down was welcome to confess their sorrows and weep in front of his vision of love and sympathy. Because Comte recognized the importance that architecture historically had in strengthening conventional religious claims, he recommended the establishment of a network of secular churches, or "Temples for Humanity." He proposed that each one be paid for by a banker, whose bust would be displayed above the door as a tribute to his generosity.

Rather than resenting bankers, Comte believed it was better to persuade them to fund charitable projects. There would be lectures, singing, celebrations, and public debates inside the temples of mankind. Sumptuous pieces of art would adorn the walls, commemorating history's greatest moments and noblest men and women. Finally, above the west-facing stage, a big aphorism printed in gold letters would be shown, calling the audience to accept the essence of Comte's philosophical religious worldview: "Connais Toi Pour T'ameliorer" (Know yourself to improve yourself.) A slew of practical hurdles doomed Comte's intricate and sometimes crazy endeavor. Comte plunged into despair and self-pity after being mocked by both atheists and Christians, being disregarded by public opinion, and lacking cash.

He began sending long and terrifying letters to monarchs and businessmen across Europe in support of his proposal, including Louis Napoleon, Queen Victoria, the Crown Prince of Denmark, three hundred bankers, and the head of the parish sewage system. However, few people contributed money, much alone responded. Comte died in 1857, at the age of 59, without seeing any of his suggestions implemented. Nonetheless, Comte was well served by his disciples, and his religion achieved some important achievements in the decades after his death. The Chapelle de L'humanite, which still remains at 5 Rue Payenne in Paris, became a well-known location for secular baptisms, burial rituals, marriages, and preaching.

Chapelle de l'humanité Paris

Comte's religion crossed the water, where it gained 5,000 followers, headed with remarkable zeal by a former Oxford don. With the support of an aunt's inheritance, this don founded the Church of Humanity on Lamb Conduit Street in London in 1878, where secular services were performed every morning. Comte's religion was considerably more popular in Brazil, where it was practiced by several of the pupils Comte had taught in Paris in the 1840s. El Templo de la Humanidad was inaugurated in Rio in 1890, and others followed in So Paulo and Curitiba. Infighting among the leadership caused by ideological disagreements on the place of Western writers and their liturgy ensured that the movement never became a really popular religion.

Nonetheless, it has carved out a tiny but long-lasting place in Brazilian spiritual life. Every Sunday morning in Rio de Janeiro, at 74 Rua Benjamin Constant, a steady audience compensates for their lack of numbers by the fervor with which they draw nourishment from the teachings of a Parisian sociologist's strange secular religion. Comte's endeavor was an attempt to preserve a portion of what appears to be true from what looks to be untrue. It is still extremely timely for these and other reasons.