Auguste Comte

Comte, Auguste (1798–1857), French philosopher and sociologist. His best-known work is The Course of Positive Philosophy (1830–42), which introduced the philosophy that later came to be called positivism. Comte believed that human society had 3 phases of development, which he called theological, metaphysical, and positive. Society is ruled by rational science only when it reaches the last stage. Comte invented the term “sociology” and influenced such thinkers as John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer.

See also: Positivism.