Auguste Comte

Born: 19 January 1798

Died: 5 September 1857

Comte is regarded as the founder of modern sociology. He is the first one to have used the word 'Sociology'. He tried to create a new science of society, which could not only explain the past of mankind but also, predict its future course. He felt that society moves through definite and fixed stages and that, it progresses towards ever-increasing perfection. 

The three stages, according to him, in which the society moves, were:

i) the theological or the religious

ii) the metaphysical or the philosophical

iii) the positive or the scientific stage.

In the first stage. people thought, all phenomena were caused by supernatural forces.

Abstract forces of either a religious or secular type were considered to be the source of knowledge in the second stage. In the last stage, scientific laws were supposed to determine both the natural and the social worlds.

He also talked about two broad areas -'social statistics', which deals with the orderly and, stable aspects of social life and patterns of behaviour (family, occupational, polity. etc.). The second area called 'social dynamics' emphasises the study of changes in a social system. According to him, sociology was to be the queen of all sciences.