Auguste Comte

Auguste Comte was a French philosopher who founded positivism, the doctrine that reliable knowledge derives from empirical science rather than theology or metaphysics. He proposed a "law of three stages" through which societies pass, and he coined the term "sociology" for the systematic study of society, helping establish it as a discipline. Educated at the École Polytechnique in Paris, he worked for a time as secretary to the social theorist Henri de Saint-Simon before developing his own system. His principal works are the six-volume Cours de philosophie positive (1830–1842) and the Système de politique positive (1851–1854). In later years he elaborated a secular "Religion of Humanity."