August Comte: Positivism, Law of three stages, Social Staticsand Social Dynamics

Before sociology existed as a subject, someone had to argue that society could be studied the way physics studies matter — through observation and evidence, not scripture or speculation. That was Comte's founding bet, and this topic is the detail behind Module 1's brief mention of him as the discipline's namer.

In two minutes

Auguste Comte founded sociology on the principle of positivism — studying society scientifically through observation — proposed a law of three stages describing how human thought evolves, and divided sociology into social statics (what holds society together) and social dynamics (how societies change).

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