Trajectory of Comptian Positivism (1820-1857): From Positive Philosophy to Religion of Humanity

Abstract

In the intellectual and sociopolitical turbulent period of the post-1789 era, following his principle of "order and progress" Auguste Comte seeks primarily to reorganize the epistemological field and secondly, to combat the adverse effects of the French Revolution. To this end, he seeks firstly to classify and to organize the sciences into a hierarchy and secondly, to create a positive science of society for which he invented the neologism "sociology". Towards the end of his life, noting a spiritual gap in the post-revolutionary period, he starts thinking about the sacred and decides to establish a new religion called "Religion of Humanity". This contribution proposes to study the evolution of Comte's thought which resulted in the creation of the positivist-inspired religion, the worship of Humanity, described by Dukheim and Mauss as an "artificial religion".