Auguste Comte was a French philosopher and was a founder of doctrine of positivism. He was more influential in 19th century and influenced the work of few social thinkers. He developed positive philosophy which creates the science of history and human social behavior by using methods of physical sciences. His theory and observation in science and the classification of science into physical and social made him the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of term.
Positivism is a philosophical theory which states that information derived from the sense experiences is the source of positive knowledge. Comte also claimed that sense experience is responsible for the development of human knowledge. According to him, positivism states that empirical observations are responsible for attaining knowledge. He was interested in science only for the reason that it improves the society.
According to Comte, knowledge is valuable only if it has practical value. He said that science should help to discover laws so that they can help to improve life and the society. These laws should predict and control various events to enhance the society. Comte’s famous statement was “know in order to predict”. He also believed that science should have arrived in the universe before the arrival of humanity and its efforts have developed human society.
Comte’s explanation on positive philosophy has given light to the important relationship between theory, practice and human understanding of the world. Comte’s approach to science was similar to that of Bacon, who stated that science should be practical and non-speculative. He claimed that due to the cumulative success of scientific method, acceptance of positivism has been increased among the intellects. He concluded that scientific data are observable, can be trusted and help to improve the society.