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Comte's Hierarchy of Sciences

Auguste Comte proposed a hierarchy of sciences with sociology at the top, followed by biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, and mathematics. Comte believed this ordering reflected increasing specificity and dependency, with each science building upon the ones below. According to Comte's reasoning, sociology is the most complex science because it depends on all other sciences and its laws are the least general, varying between different social groups and situations.

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1K views2 pages

Comte's Hierarchy of Sciences

Auguste Comte proposed a hierarchy of sciences with sociology at the top, followed by biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, and mathematics. Comte believed this ordering reflected increasing specificity and dependency, with each science building upon the ones below. According to Comte's reasoning, sociology is the most complex science because it depends on all other sciences and its laws are the least general, varying between different social groups and situations.

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Kushagra Trivedi
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Comte’s Hierarchy of Sciences

Background

August Comte, a Frenchman, is widely regarded as the father of


sociology – in the sense that he was the one who birthed
sociology as a subject.

Comte, amongst other things, gave a hierarchy of sciences as


follows.

The Hierarchy

1. Sociology
2. Biology
3. Chemistry
4. Physics
5. Astronomy
6. Mathematics

Reasoning for this Hierarchy

Comte justified this hierarchy thus.

According to Comte, the ascending order of the hierarchy of


sciences is based on the following two factors:

1. Increasing Specificity, i.e. Decreasing Generality


2. Increasing Dependency
The higher one goes in the hierarchy of sciences, the more is
the science dependent on the one below it, and the less
general it is (i.e. absence of general laws).

Hence, according to Comte, sociology is the most complex


science, as (1) it depends on every other science, and (2) it is
the most situation-based, with different laws for different social
groups, and therefore the least general.

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