C'este donc par l'étude des mathématiques, et seulement par elle, que l'on peut se faire une idée juste et approfondie de ce que c'est qu'une science.
Auguste ComteRead
nd now that man's history has been for the first time systematically considered as a whole, and has been found to be, like all other phenomena, subject to invariable laws, the preparatory labours of modern Science are ended.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of organizing and understanding human history through a scientific lens.
Auguste Comte suggests that humanity's history can be analyzed just like any other natural phenomenon, which has led to the end of preliminary efforts in modern science. By recognizing that history follows invariable laws, Comte argues for the establishment of sociology as a discipline that uses scientific methods to understand societal development and human behavior.
Themes
HistoryScienceSociologyHuman BehaviorLaws
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used to start a discussion about the importance of sociology in understanding societal changes.
More from Auguste Comte
All quotes →The sacred formula of positivism: love as a principle, the order as a foundation, and progress as a goal.
Auguste ComteRead
Language forms a kind of wealth, which all can make use of at once without causing any diminution of the store, and which thus admits a complete community of enjoyment; for all, freely participating in the general treasure, unconsciously aid in its preservation.
Auguste ComteRead
If we do not allow free thinking in chemistry or biology, why should we allow it in morals or politics?
Auguste ComteRead
To understand a science it is necessary to know its history.
Auguste ComteRead
Similar quotes
Accurate and minute measurement seems to the non-scientific imagination, a less lofty and dignified work than looking for something new. But nearly all the grandest discoveries of science have been but the rewards of accurate measurement and patient long-continued labour in the minute sifting of numerical results.
Lord KelvinRead
We have to have a combination of general relativity that describes the warping of space and time, and quantum physics, which describes the uncertainties in that warping and how they change.
Kip ThorneRead
Follow the evidence wherever it leads, and question everything.
Neil Degrasse TysonRead
What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that men set foot on the moon but that they set eye on the earth.
Norman CousinsRead
The goal of scientific physicians in their own science ... is to reduce the indeterminate. Statistics therefore apply only to cases in which the cause of the facts observed is still indeterminate.
Claude BernardRead
[A]ll knowledge is one. When a light brightens and illuminates a corner of a room, it adds to the general illumination of the entire room. Over and over again, scientific discoveries have provided answers to problems that had no apparent connection with the phenomena that gave rise to the discovery.
Isaac AsimovRead