comte, auguste - the positive philosophy vol III

Positive Philosophy/321

They require all foregoing resources for investigation, and present a new mode of observing. In physics, the expert mental method takes its rise; and it is immediately attended by the logical resource of the corpuscular or atomic theory; both being limited to the same kind of investigations. When the logical and scientific conditions proper to the position in the scale are fulfilled, there can be no doubt that this third phase of rational positivity will be found to be as superior to the astronomical phase as that is to the mathematical, imperfect as it now is in its oscillation between a barren empiricism and an oppressive mysticism, metaphysical or algebraic. The varied and complex nature of such an order of investigations could not admit, even under a better intellectual system of a precision and co-ordination comparable to those permitted by celestial theories; but these imperfections, transient or permanent, do not prevent the sense of natural law from receiving here a considerable extension, by being applied to the most complex phenomena of inorganic existence.

The next step is from inert to living nature: and we see the positive method rising to a new application much more different from the three former than they are froze each other, and which will make this new science as essentially superior to the preceding by its logical plenitude as by its scientific importance, when its conditions are thoroughly understood. Thus far, investigations have permitted and required an almost indefinite parcelling out; but the into connection of biological phenomena is such that no analytical operation can be conceived of otherwise than as introductory to a synthetical determination,—the division between the abstract and the concrete being all the while maintained, and the more carefully on account of the small interval that separates them. A radical change in the scientific system now therefore enters in, making the spirit of generality overrule the spirit of detail, till then preponderant, and thus carrying forward our reason remarkably towards its true natural condition. The statical view now comes out clearly in connection with the dynamical, in a manner especially suitable to biological speculations, in which these two kinds of estimate appear more distinct and correlative than in any former application. But the grand feature of this fourth phase is the vast extension of the general art of observing, then augmented by the institution of the comparative method, hitherto very subordinate and obscure, but now proved to be the most powerful logical instrument applicable to such speculations. Corresponding with it, and summing up its results, we have, under the same phase,

322/Auguste Comte

the theory of classification. The logical condition of the phase ought to be judged of by this double creation, and not by its existing imperfection, which is owing to its more recent formation, its higher complexity, and an inferior fulfilment of the preparatory, conditions of its rational culture. The sense of natural law must arise out of inorganic research; but it could not acquire its full efficacy till it was extended to biological speculations, which are above all adapted to discredit absolute notions by exhibiting the immense variety of modes of existence. Great as is the advance attained in this phase, it remains no less merely introductory than the rest, though holding a higher place. Its insufficiency becomes broadly apparent when we advance from the study of the organic life, by which it is least separated from the foregoing sciences. to the study of animality, for then, in applying ourselves to the highest positive speculations, in contemplating the moral and intellectual functions of the brain, we become at once sensible of the irrationality of such a scientific constitution: for the most decisive case of all cannot be understood but by subordinating the study of it to the ulterior science of social development, for the reasons already assigned to show the impossibility of understanding our mental nature from the individual point of view; a method which must be unproductive in whatever way it is instituted.

In every view, social science offers the attributes of a completion of the positive method. All the others, even that of Man, are preparatory to it. Here alone can the general sense of natural law be decisively developed, by eliminating for ever arbitrary wills and chimerical entities, in the most difficult case of all. The old philosophy must be doomed to extinction, when a regular study is able to disclose the laws of the continuous variation of human opinions. I have repeatedly said that this science permits, above any other, the prominent use of a priori considerations, both from its position in the hierarchy, by which it depends on all the rest, and in virtue of the perfect unity which is given to it by its plenitude of logical resources. It will soon be admitted to be the most logical of all the sciences, considering the degree of precision compatible with the nature of the phenomena, since the most difficult and varied speculations are naturally connected with one single fundamental theory. But the most striking feature to us is the extension of the means of investigation required by, and involved in, this most complex subject of human study. It enjoys all the resources of the anterior sciences, but they would be almost useless, and even deceptive, without the addition of the historical method, properly so called which investigates, not by

Positive Philosophy/323

comparison, but by gradual filiation. We have reviewed this method in its dogmatic form, and in its application, and we have seen how it must preponderate over all other resources, so as to bring out and utilize the properties of positive investigation, by which the regular action of human faculties is to be perfected. Thus a universal logical method corresponds in this case to a universal scientific view. and the result is that the human mind here finds its natural position. It would occupy too much space to exhibit the reaction of this science upon those that precede it; and it would be as yet premature. I have done what I proposed, in constituting the true system of positive philosophy, as a result of the preparation instituted by Bacon and Descartes; and its practical construction is a work for a future time,—probably near at hand.

These are the five phases of the positive method, through whose succession the scientific spirit rises gradually to the dignity of the philosophical spirit, effacing at length the provisional distinction between them which had been necessary during the earlier part of the human evolution. If we consider the miserable theoretical state from which human reason set out, we shall not wonder that so long a tutelage was required to enable Man to extend to his abstract and general speculations the same mental training that popular wisdom spontaneously employs in its partial and practical acts. Though there can be no exemption from the necessity of reproducing this natural succession for ever, the systematic education now prepared for, in place of the instinctive, will render the process much more rapid and easy; and I rejoice in the privilege of having prepared it for my successors, by the elaboration of this my original scheme.

In this chapter, I have wrought out the most difficult and important part of my work, in as far as it relates to our general conclusions, according to the constant preponderance of our logical over our scientific needs; and especially at a time when, the doctrine being in a backward state, the philosophical procedure must consist in instituting the Method completely. What I have done in this direction must be considered as a natural equivalent of the discourse of Descartes on method, allowing for the diversities resulting from the new situation of modern mind, and the new corresponding wants. Descartes had for his subject the introductory evolution which had been for two centuries preparing for the ascendancy of rational positivism; while I have had to examine the fulfilment of that preparation, in order to determine the final constitution of a sound philosophy in connection with social objects, a view which Descartes

324/Auguste Comte

avoided, but which Bacon already anticipated. This most difficult part of my task being achieved, I have only to complete my object by making a rapid scientific survey, to answer to she logical, and to venture upon an anticipation of the action of the positive philosophy, when it shall have attained its full maturity.

Chapter XIV

Estimate of the Results of Positive Doctrine in Its Preparatory Stage

As I have intimated, our scientific conclusions cannot be so important or so extensive as our logical conclusions because they relate to a system of knowledge scarcely yet instituted: yet it is necessary to follow up the logical summary with a sketch of the proper nature and connection of the abstract studies that we have examined in succession; our present view regarding them as so many necessary elements of a single body of doctrine, according to our principle.

We have perceived throughout that, in the case of the human evolution at least, there exists a natural agreement between our knowledge and our needs. The knowledge which is inaccessible to us is precisely that which could answer no purpose but gratifying a vain curiosity. We have no concern with anything but the laws of phenomena which affect human beings; such action, however indirect constituting a basis of positive estimate, the full realization of which can follow only very remotely the manifestation of the corresponding needs, at any r ate till we can institute a better research. This scheme must comprehend, on the one hand, Humanity itself, in its existence and action, and, on the other hand, the general medium, whose permanent influence is an essential element in the whole movement. Every scientific, as well as logical consideration, shows the necessity of the study of the medium, and thus naturally divides science into two departments,—inorganic and organic science; the first being the indispensable preparation for the second: and the second simply modifying the phenomena of the first by a nobler action. The three essential modes of the first order—the mathematical, physical and chemical, and the two which are proper to organic exist- ence—the individual and the social, thus present a scientific series precisely correspondent to the logical that we have just reviewed; and its five stages will, in like manner, lead us up to the normal state of true philosophy.

Positive Philosophy/325

Mathematical existence is the simplest and most universal of all; and, in a geometrical form first, and then a mechanical, is the only kind of existence cognizable by us in the many and important cases in which our investigation can proceed only on visual evidence. This is the scientific ground of the priority of the mathematical element in positive philosophy; and, scientifically speaking, the only great result derivable from it is a systematic development of the sense of logical laws, without which physical laws could not be conceived of. Thus, numerical speculations, the source of the logical instrument of analysis, have historically furnished the earliest manifestation of ideas of order and harmony, gradually extended afterwards to the most complex subjects. Apart from that, mathematical science evidently consists especially in geometry and mechanics, answering to our primitive notions of existence and action; for, in the statical case, all phenomena are reducible to relations of magnitude, form, or position; and, in the dynamical case, to mere movement, partial or general. Such a simplification is practically inconvenient, and may be misleading, as the encroachments of geometers plainly show: but it is true in an abstract sense; and therefore universally true, whatever other conditions may be added in cases of growing complexity. Geometry, too, is more general than mechanics; for we can conceive of existence without motion, as in the case of stationary stars, which come under only geometrical conditions; and to geometry we owe the earliest conception of laws of agreement, which may he regarded quite apart from those of succession. Yet, in a scientific sense, Mechanics is the more important branch of mathematics, on account of its more direct and complete relations with the rest of natural philosophy; and on account also of the implication of mechanical speculations with geometrical considerations; a drawback upon their logical perfection, but a source of marked reality, enabling them to represent the whole of mathematical existence. This introduction to natural philosophy, with its astronomical manifestation, is, we know, the only portion of inorganic science which has attained its full normal constitution; and for this reason I hold it extremely important to show the coincidence between the primary laws on which this constitution depends and the laws which seem to be proper to organic existence; that we may perceive by the direct correlativeness of the two extreme cases, the tendency of all our knowledge to scientific unity, corresponding to the logical unity already recognized. The intermediate ideas,—those of the physico-chemical order,—will no doubt add their confirmation when they shall have become rationally estab-

326/Auguste Comte

lished.

I have shown that the physical laws which are the basis of the theory of motion and equilibrium, and therefore all their consequences, are as applicable to the mechanical phenomena of living bodies as to any others (allowing for the difficulties arising from a complication of details), and we have seen, in a more special manner, that the study of animal mechanics, in the province of biology, must begin with such an application, and would be wholly unintelligible without it; but we have now to go much further, showing that the application must extend even to the social form of existence. As to the first of these laws, Kepler’s law of inertia, improperly so called,—seen in its true light as the law of mechanical persistence,—is merely a particular case of the tendency of all natural phenomena to persevere in their state, unless disturbed; a tendency specially established with regard to the most simple and general phenomena. I have traced back the biological case of Habit to this principle, modified only by the characteristic intermittence of the corresponding phenomena. In social life, less rapid and more durable than individual life, we see an analogous exemplification in the obstinate tendency of every political system to perpetuate itself. In physics, again, we have noticed, in acoustics, phenomena which prove that, in the smallest molecular changes, there is a disposition to the reproduction of acts which were before supposed proper to living beings, and which evidently come under the law of mechanical persistence. It is impossible to deny here the subordination of all natural effects to some universal laws, modified according to the conditions of each case. It is the same with the second law of motion,—Galileo’s law of the reconciliation of any common motion with various particular motions—which is extensible to all phenomena, inorganic and organic,—all al five and passive mutual relations being radically independent of any action which is precisely common to the parts concerned. In biology, we find this true in the cases of sensibility and contractility for, our impressions being purely comparative, our appreciation of partial differences is not interfered with by any general and uni form influence. In sociology, we find it a gain; any disturbance in the interior of any political system being due to the unequal progressive action on the different parts which, if participating in the movement in any equal degree, would be unaffected by a much more rapid progression. We discern an analogous case in the physico-chemi- cal province, in thermometrical effects referable to mutual inequality, and we shall no doubt encounter many more when the science is further

Positive Philosophy/327

developed. As to the third law of motion,—Newton’s law of the equivalence of action and reaction,—its universality is more striking than in the other two eases; and it is the only case of the three in which the principle has hitherto been perceived and proposed. If we adapt our observation to the spirit of the corresponding phenomena, there is no doubt that the equivalence of action and reaction may be as really observed with regard to physical, chemical, biological, and social effects as in the case of mechanical effects. Besides the mutual quality inherent in all actions, it is certain that the general estimate of mechanical reaction, in the combination of masses and velocities, everywhere meets with all analogous appreciation. If Berthollet has shown the chemical influence of mass, before misconceived, an equivalent discussion would manifest no less clearly its biological or political influence. The close and prevalent interconnection which distinct wishes vital, and yet more social phenomena, and in which all aspects are mutually dependent. is eminently fit to familiarize us with this universality of this trial law of motion. Each of the three laws on which rational Mechanics is founded is, in fact, only a mechanical manifestation of a general law, applicable to all possible phenomena. In order to illustrate this most important approximation, it must be extended, further, to the famous general principle by which D’Alembert completely connected questions of motion with questions of equilibrium. Whether it is regarded, as I propose, as a happy generalization of the third law of motion or is still regarded as a distinct idea, it is in conformity with a universal conception by which the dynamical is always connected with the statical appreciation,—the laws of harmony being always maintained in the midst of the laws of succession. Sociology here again affords us the most decisive exemplification (though often only implicit) of this general relation: because the two aspects are more marked and more interconnected than in any other case. If we could thoroughly know the laws of existence, I have no doubt that we should find them all, as in mechanics, to be mere questions of action. But, though we must proceed in an inverse manner, we proceed upon the same conception of the necessary convergence between the statical and the dynamical conclusions. It is only that the universal principle is employed in a new mode, in conformity with the nature of the phenomena; of which sociological speculation has often presented important examples. The lasts of rational mechanics are then only the earliest philosophical manifestation of certain general laws, necessarily applicable to the natural economy of any kind of phenomena

328/Auguste Comte

whatever. Though they must first be recognized in regard to the simplest and most general case of all, it does not follow that they are due to the mathematical spirit, which at present is the chief obstacle in the way of their being understood. The conception results from the first scientific reaction of the positive spirit proper to organic studies, and sociological speculation particularly, on fundamental ideas which have hitherto seemed proper to inorganic researches. Its philosophical value lies in its establishing an identity between the primary laws of the two extreme orders of natural phenomena: and the delineation I have now offered is intended to point out here, in the only case compatible with the extreme imperfection of science, the first type of the new character of universality which must belong to the chief positive ideas under the natural ascendancy of the true philosophical spirit. We have no equivalent case at our command: and in more complex subjects, these general laws can only go a part of the way in directing our speculations; though they will always afford valuable scientific guidance and suggestion, because they must always govern more special laws, relating to other abstract modes of existence and activity. Whether, as we may hope, these more special laws may in time obtain universality among, their respective phenomena or not, we are now authorized in conceiving the whole system of our knowledge as susceptible, in certain respects, of a true scientific unity, independently of the logical unity, though in complete agreement with it.

If Mathematics furnishes us with the laws of inorganic existence, Astronomy discloses to us the medium, which is no less universal. Our examination of it may appear a departure from the great Baconian precept about the abstract nature of the speculations proper to the first philosophy: astronomical ideas being in fact nothing else than mathematical notions restricted to the case of the stars. But, true as this is, there is another view,—the same as that which justified the incorporation of the analysis of air and water with abstract chemistry;—that our study is not concrete, inasmuch as it relates to the general medium, which is truly abstract and unchangeable. The mathematical phenomena of astronomy remain abstract, as if the bodies they relate to could admit of no other; whereas the character of a concrete theory consists in the direct and permanent combination of the different modes inherent in each total existence. In astronomy, mathematical speculations do not lose their abstract nature, and only exhibit it in a case so important: that we are compelled to make it special; its difficulties also constituting the chief destination of mathematical research, as well as its best logical

Positive Philosophy/329

instigation. The reaction on mathematics, again, affords us the most striking evidence of the reality and the scope of its conceptions. Here, again, the human mind obtains its first systematic sense of a necessary economy, arising from invariable relations proper to corresponding phenomena, and affording, by its inaccessible sway, a rule of conduct. This is the source of the philosophical guidance of collective Man which is carried out by training in the case of individual Man. Yet, the human point of view must prevail in this case, to secure the rationality of the corresponding studies; because our radical ignorance of cosmical laws, and our restriction to our own system, prevent our obtaining and external view of astronomical science. We find in astronomy the first instance of the encroachments of the mathematical spirit in an empirical way; but, as we have seen, the fault affects only the logical administration, and does not produce the scientific dangers which it occasions in the more complex departments, because it is in full conformity with the nature of astronomical research.

In Physics, a new action is first recognized, more compound and essentially modifying the simpler. All physical phenomena are common to all bodies; but their manifestation requires a concurrence of circumstances, more or less compound, and not continuous. Of the five physical categories, Weight alone presents a really mathematical generality, thus being the natural transition between astronomy and physics. The others exhibit an increasing speciality, by which I have classed them. The importance of this province, in connection with that of chemistry, will appear if we try to imagine that such a transition from the mathematical to the organic sciences did not exist: for we shall see how all conception of unity must disappear if science consisted of two elements so heterogeneous, which could admit of no permanent relation; even supposing that the positive spirit could arise at all. This intermediate element is so connected with the others at each extremity as to constitute a sufficiently perfect scale. Some difficulties however arise out of this position, which will always largely affect the inherent imperfections of the duplicate science, the subject of which presents neither the simplicity of the first couple nor the characteristic interconnection of the last we have seen how little prospect there is of scientific unity among the heterogeneous parts of which physics is composed; aud the greater probability is that the number of irreducible elements will hereafter be increased; for the diversity must correspond not only with the subjects studied, but with our organic means of investigation. Of the five exist-

330/Auguste Comte

ing subjects, two address themselves to one sense each.—one to hearing and another to sight; and these can never be made to coincide. The other three relate equally to sight and touch: and yet no one will venture to regard thermology and electrology as susceptible of fusion with barology, or with each other, however indisputable are certain relations between them. Moreover, the actual number of our external senses is by no means finally ascertained,—so immature is at present the whole theory of sensation. A truly rational inquiry would, no doubt, show that we have two senses relating to temperature and pressure, which are both now confounded with that of touch, which seems to include all the offices whose special seat is not clearly determined. It is evident, again, that smell and taste, largely needed in chemistry, have no function in physics; yet it seems that each of them must have ere this constituted a department for itself, like sight and hearing, if our organization had been in this respect as perfect as that of many of the higher animals. The mode of inorganic existence which is disclosed by smell, seems in fact to be not less distinct from those which correspond to the other senses than they are from each other; of which the persistence and power of the sense through the whole animal series is an evidence. Our organic imperfection may perhaps be to a certain degree compensated by an artificial investigation, which may afford some scientific extension; and an improvement of our relations with the higher animals may conduce to the same end. Meantime, it is clear that the number of irreducible elements that constitute Physics, is not yet even rationally fixed. Till it can be, the science remains peculiarly liable to the encroachments of mathematical and metaphysical abuse. The imperfections of its nature and method of culture, however, cast no doubt upon its rank in the scale of sciences. That rank is settled by the universal principle of decreasing generality; and the principle obviates the worst inconveniences of the multiple character of physics by instituting a gradual transition from the barological speculations which unite it to astronomy, and the electrological which border upon chemistry.

As for Chemistry, considered separately, it relates to so intimate and complete a mode of inorganic existence, that it has been found difficult to separate it from the organic. The phenomena of various substances present differences which are not reducible in the physical case, to inequalities of degree; and here we find fully developed the tendency of phenomena to become susceptible of modification in proportion to their complexity and increasing speciality. That tendency, it is true,