Saint Simon and Auguste Comte
CLAUDE HENRI COMTE DE SAINT-SIMON
born 17.10.1760, died 19.5.1825Early French Socialist. Precursor of Sociology. Wrote
L'Industrie (1817): quotes
L'Organisateur (1819), quotes
Du Systeme Industriel (1821),
Catechisme des Industriels (1823) quotes
Nouveau Christianisme (1825).
In
1831
the English social theorist,
John Stuart Mill
(1806-1873),
published a series of magazine articles,
The Spirit of the Age,
outlining a theory of history and progress based on the ideas of an early
founder of French sociology,
Claude Henri Saint
Simon
(1760-1825). The word
"sociology", invented by Saint Simon's colleague and rival
Auguste Comte
(1798-1857), was not used until 1838. But the idea of a science of society
was a preoccupation of Saint Simon and Mill before Comte gave it the name
that we now use for it.
Mill was a radical. He was one of a group of utilitarian campaigner's who
sought to have society re-structured so that it secured the greatest
happiness of the greatest number. As a believer in progress, Mill felt that
the spirit of the age was with him. The year before his articles, a
revolution in France had replaced a conservative monarchy with a more
liberal king. Whilst his articles were being published, he and his friends
were campaigning for the Great Reform Bill, which got rid of the English
rotten boroughs, evened out the vote across the country, and paved the way
for parliamentary democracy in Britain.
Whether people approved of change, or disapproved, almost everybody agreed
"that the times are pregnant with change; and that the nineteenth century
will be known to posterity as the era of one of the greatest revolutions of
which history has preserved the remembrance, in the human mind, and in the
whole constitution of human society". The progressives, "the men of the
present age, were exulted by the changes and described them as "the march
of intellect". The conservatives, "the men of the past", were in terror of
the changes, and pleaded for respect for the "wisdom of ancestors".
Mill was a progressive, but, in The Spirit of the Age, he argued
that the most important feature of the age was not that it was an age of
change, but that it was an age of transition. It was an age of moving
between one order of society and another. People had outgrown their old
institutions and old doctrines, but they had not yet acquired new ones.
Although Mill thought that history was moving
with him, that society was moving rapidly from things he disliked towards
things he wanted, he did not think the world should always be in this state
of agitation. He suggested a rhythm to history. Society is always in either
a natural or a transitory state:
The
natural states are durable.
Conservative theory
J.S. Mill and Saint Simon's idea that
society has a
"natural" state came from reading Conservative theorists who
criticised the
French revolution of 1789. These conservative theories contributed a great
deal to the origin of sociology. There were several conservative critics,
but the one I will take as an example is
Edmund Burke (1729-1797), the
author of
Reflections on the French Revolution (November
1790)
Burke, and other critics of the
1789 French Revolution disagreed with the liberal idea
that society could be restructured by reason.
The radical writer, Rousseau, had argued that laws need to be brought into
agreement with the general will of the people. Conservative writers like
Edmund Burke did not, necessarily, dispute this. Instead they suggested
that the will of the people is not what radicals, basing themselves on
Rousseau, think it is.
Burke wrote of
"a cabal calling itself
philosophic"
whose
"opinions and
systems" were held to be
"the true actuating spirit" of the French
Revolution.
Rousseau is the philosopher most often quoted with respect to
the French Revolution, although Burke doubted if Rousseau would have
approved of what his followers did. Burke said that England had its
philosophic faction, sympathetic to the revolution. But they were not "the
people" but "a handful of people". This handful of philosophers had
compiled an abstract bill of rights "in the name of the whole people", but
"the people of England have no share in it. They utterly disclaim it". If
the philosophic faction tried to base a revolution on their principles,
Burke said that the people of England would "resist ... it with their lives
and fortunes".
So Burke provides us with an image of a tiny fraction of intellectuals, who
claim to speak in the name of "the people" on the basis of their own
reasoning. He contrasts this with an image of the real people, who are
wiser because they rely on the wisdom inherent in their prejudices. Burke
said that the real people know that they depend on custom and expertise.
They have an interest in tradition and authority and do not want to make
their own laws. The real people are wiser than the radical philosophers.
Theorists like the poets Wordsworth and Coleridge, began by following
Rousseau's radical views and were won over to the conservatism of Burke,
precisely because they perceived the real people to be the workers rather
than the intellectuals.
To illustrate Burke's ideas, let us consider a shepherd. He (we will ignore
Little Bo Peep) has skills for looking after sheep that have taken
centuries to perfect and which have taken him all his life to learn. A man
like that does not want to be his own politician or priest - he wants to
rely
on experts as skilled at politics and religion as he is at sheep-rearing.
Society, according to the conservatives, is naturally hierarchical. We all
think about politics to some degree; we all think about science to some
degree; we all think about religion to some degree - But some people think
a
lot more about each of these than others - they are the experts.
Mill's problem is that, on the one hand, he wants people to have collective
control of their destiny; whilst, on the other, he does not want them to
make a cock-up of it for lack of expertise. The resolution of his dilemma
was representative democracy. That is, the people should choose the
experts.
Now we can get back to the rhythm of history. We now have two things: A
model of society from the conservative theorists, and a theory of history
from Mill. According to the conservatives, society is a complex
organisation of roles arranged in institutions, which is integrated and
animated by ideas. Mill's theory of history is that people can outgrow the
institutions and ruling ideas of their society, and when this happens the
people need to acquire new ones.
What we have is a succession of social orders, each with its corresponding
ideas system, and transitional stages in between that arise because the
people outgrow the preceding social order and its ideas. The social orders
are natural states. There characteristic is that, in them, worldly power
and moral influence are habitually and indisputably exercised by the
fittest people that society can provide. The transitional stages are when
society contains people more fitted for worldly power and moral influence
than those exercising the relevant roles. Later theorists were to refer to
the process Mill was describing as a circulation of elites.
Mill says that, on its own, this is a theory of change, rather than a
theory of progress. Progress is dependent on building on what has past
(culture) and on free discussion.
SAINT SIMON (1760-1825)
John Stuart Mill took
the idea of
society as complex organisation and the idea of
history as rhythm, from Saint Simon. Mill's concern for liberty
and
democracy
are part of the liberal tradition. They are not issues that the Saint
Simonians are concerned with. The Saint Simonians thought that freedom and
democracy distract from the real issues.
Claude Henri, Comte de Saint
Simon
was a French aristocrat. He dropped the
title "Comte de" during the
French Revolution. In
1779, aged 17, he
was a
French army office, serving abroad. He returned to France in
1789 and,
during the revolution, he made a small fortune speculating in confiscated
lands. His lavish expenditure, however, led to poverty.
During the period that
Napoleon was the ruler of France, Saint Simon
developed the ideas that Auguste Comte was later to call "positivism". We
can identify four beliefs that characterise Saint Simon's positivist ideas:
1. A unification of sciences is needed to create a new world view.
2. A science of society is needed - analogous to the natural sciences
like physics and biology.
3. Science should replace religion ('theology') as coordinator of the
moral order.
4. Scientists should become the new leaders of society.
Herbert Marcuse's portrayal of "positivism" puts the emphasis on being
positive, rather than negative or critical:
In
1815, Napoleon lost
his war against the monarchist powers, and the
Bourbon King of France was restored. Napoleon went into exile and the royal
family and aristocracy returned to rule France. The social position and
power of industrialists and bankers was threatened by the return of the old
nobility, and Saint Simon began to move into the circle of the threatened
groups.
In
1819
Saint Simon published a series of pamphlets called The
Organiser.
One of these was later nick-named The parable. The Parable caught the
public imagination and was twice re-printed.
Then, in
1820, the
Restoration
police arrest Saint Simon for publishing a work offensive to the king. On
February 13th 1820, the Duke de Berry (a relative of the French king) was
assassinated. Saint Simon's prosecution claimed that the assassin had been
Saint Simon was acquitted and the trial gave publicity to
his ideas. This was the year that John Stuart Mill met him. Mill was 14,
Saint Simon was 60.
So what did the Parable say? It asked two questions. Question one was, if
France suddenly lost her 3,000 leading scientists, artists, manufacturers,
bankers, farmers and skilled craftsmen, what would be the effect? The
answer to this question was that overnight the nation would become a
lifeless corpse. It would become inferior to the nations that are its
rivals and it would remain so for at least a generation, until it had
replaced the people it had lost. The second question was, suppose France
lost all the king's family, his royal household, the King's Ministers of
State and councillors, his civil servants and all the local government
officials - Suppose she lost her judges, her army officers and her
leading
churchmen - and all her rich landowners who live like nobles - what
would
be the effect. France would grieve, but not suffer. The country would
easily find other people to do their jobs.
The idea behind Saint Simon's parable was that society has layers, and that
these layers can get out of order. At the time he wrote, the bottom layer
contained people like shepherds and factory hands, the middle layer
contained people like scientists, philosophers and industrialists, and the
top layer contained people like politicians, priests and army officers. His
parable says that the top layer is easily replaced, whilst the middle layer
is very difficult to replace. The people at the top have most of the wealth
and power, but they are the least useful. Society, at that time, he argued
"is a world which is upside down".
Saint Simon wanted a society which would be controlled by scientists and
industrialists. He wanted a moral order that would be controlled by
positivist philosophers. (Later the Saint Simonians became a religious sect
The New Christianity). He believed that the old land-owning, military and
catholic elite needed to be replaced by a new industrial and scientific
elite.
Saint Simon's theory of history
We now move on to see how this fits in with Saint Simon's theory of
history. We will do so with a table that shows the organic and critical
periods that he identified in West European history.
ORGANIC PERIOD OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
TRANSITIONAL PERIOD OF IMPERIAL EPOCH OF ROME
ORGANIC PERIOD OF THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
TRANSITIONAL PERIOD OF TIME SAINT SIMON WAS WRITING
There are two aspects that I want to highlight. First respecting social
organisation, secondly what I have called the
rhythm of history.
SOCIAL OrganisATION. Underlying the concept of organic periods of history
is the idea that the parts of society fit in with one another. Later
sociologists have called this being 'functional'. The old land-owning,
military and catholic elite was the best (functional) elite for the
medieval world. The analysis of social structure in this way follows the
analogy of the body, where parts do not make sense except as part of the
whole. This idea, developed by Saint Simon's student, Auguste Comte, was
further developed by Emile Durkheim in the creation of Sociology.
RHYTHM OF HISTORY. Looking for the motor that drives history forward leads
to what Comte called "dynamics", as distinct from the "statics" of
analysing the structure of society. Saint Simon's explanation of the
dynamic of history fed directly into marxism.
The dynamic of history, for Saint Simon, came from classes and class
conflict. Each era has two ruling classes, the practical organisers and the
intellectuals. Which came first as a motor of change? Is it conflict of
ideas that moves history forward, or conflict of practical organisation?
The basic argument that Saint Simon gave was that it is the conflict of
ideas.
We must now move on to make our model of history a little more complicated.
Saint simon argued that the social orders overlapped. The new order was
conceived when the old order was mature. That is, the old order contained
the seeds of its own destruction. When are at the peak of maturity, the
germ of a new world arises. An example of this is the granting of charters
to towns by medieval kings, an act the facilitates the development of the
commercial classes that develop to replace the medieval kings. On the
intellectual plane there is the way that arabic scientific teachings enter
medieval universities.
Quotes from Saint Simon
L'Industrie (1817),
The philosophical revolution which then took place consisted in the passage
from polytheism to theism. Once this revolution was completed, once theism
was organised, a corresponding political revolution resulted, which
consisted of the passage from the ancient social order which had existed
among the
Greeks and the
Romans to the one which was later established
among modern peoples...
The transition which is now taking place is composed, like the preceding
one, of two elements: one philosophical, the other political. The first
consists in the passage from the theological system to the terrestrial and
positive system; the second, in the passage from a regime of arbitrary rule
to a liberal and industrial regime.
The philosophical revolution has long since begun, because we should trace
its origins back to the study of positive sciences introduced into Europe
by the Arabs more than ten centuries ago. To complete this
revolution we
have to accomplish only one more thing: we must finish the comprehensive
work necessary for the organisation of a positive system, whose elements
now exist isolated.
The transition in its political form can be said to date from
Luther's
Reformation. Although this political transition has been less
catastrophic
than the political transition from polytheism to theism, it has already
produced great misfortunes; it was the issue behind the
Thirty years' War,
the
two English revolutions of the seventeenth century, and the
French
Revolution.
(Quoted
Manuel, F.E. 1963
p.221)
L'Organisateur (1819),
Let us suppose that France keeps all of the men of genius which it
possesses in the sciences, in the fine arts, and in the trades, but has the
misfortune to lose on the same day Monsieur, the brother of the king,
Monseigneur the Duke d'Angoulème, Monseigneur the Duke de Berry,
Monseigneur the Duke d'Orlèans, Monseigneur the Duke de Bourbon,
Madame the Duchess d'Angoulème, Madame the Duchess de Berry, Madame
the Duchess d'Orlèans, Madame the Duchess Bourbon, and Mademoiselle
de Condé.
Let us suppose that at the same time [France loses] all the great officers
of the crown, all the ministers of state (both those with and those without
departments), all the councillors of state, all the maîtres-de-
requêtes, all the marshals, all the cardinals, archbishops,
bishops,
grand vicars and canons, all the prefects and subprefects, all the
employers n the ministries, all the judges, and, in addition to these, the
ten thousand richest landowners among those who live as nobles.
This accident will certainly afflict the French for they are a good people,
because they would not be able to look with indifference upon the sudden
disappearance of so large a number of their compatriots. But this loss of
the thirty thousand individuals reputed to be the most important in the
State, would only cause them grief in a purely sentimental sense, for it
would not result in any political evil for the State.
(etc. Quoted
Manuel, F.E. 1963
p.211)
Catéchisme des Industriels (1823)
Q. What developments took place in industry from Louis 11 up to and
including the reign of Louis 14? What caused this advance and the
importance acquired by the industrials?
A. By the fifteenth century the monarchy had already acquired a great deal
of strength compared with its position at the time of the conquest of the
Gauls by the Franks, when it was merely the generalship of the Frankish
army, nominated by the chieftains whose troops made up this army.
When Louis 14 ascended the throne he recognised that the monarchy was still
only a very precarious institution with no positive and stable character.
He recognised that the sovereign power still belonged collectively to the
barons, that the King was in reality only the most important baron, and
that those barons descended from chieftains still subscribed to the
tradition that the King was a primus inter pares, to be appointed
and dismissed according to their wishes. He recognised, finally, the need
to fix his attention on the fact that in France the barons were
collectively stronger and more powerful than the King, and that under the
feudal constitution the monarchy could maintain its supremacy only by
keeping the barons divided and attracting some of the most powerful barons
to its side.
Louis 14 conceived the bold plan of concentrating all sovereign power in
the hands of the monarchy, destroying the supremacy of the Franks over the
Gauls, destroying the feudal system, abolishing the institutions of
nobility, and making himself King of the Gauls instead of chief of the
Franks.
If this plan was to be successful, the King had to merge his authority with
the interests of a class strong enough to support him and ensure the
success of his enterprise. He united with the industrials.
The industrials wanted the sovereign power to be concentrated in the hands
of the monarchy, because this was the only way of destroying the
impediments to commerce in France, which resulted from the division of the
sovereign power. They also wanted to become the first class in society, as
much to satisfy their self-esteem as to achieve the material advantages
involved in making the law (the law always favouring its makers).
Consequently, the industrials accepted the alliance proposed by the
monarchy, an alliance which they have maintained ever since.
Louis 11 may thus be regarded as the founder of the league formed in the
fifteenth century between the monarchy and industry against the nobility,
between the King of France and the Gauls against the descendants of the
Franks.
The struggle between the king and the great vassals, between the chiefs of
industrial enterprises and the nobles, lasted for more than two hundred
years before the sovereign powers were concentrated in the hands of the
monarchy, and before the direction of industrial enterprises by the nobles
had completely ceased. But in the end Louis 14 saw the descendants or
successors of the most important chieftains (who had subsequently become
barons) fill his antechambers in their efforts to obtain household posts.
And at last the numerous class of workingmen had no other leaders, in their
work, but men drawn from their ranks and whose capacity or wealth had
enabled them to become entrepreneurs of some industrial enterprise.
GUSTAVE D'EICHTHAL to J.S.MILL
Quoted
Manuel, F.E. 1963
p.421
23.11.1829 letter said that for two years none of the disciples was able to
grasp the full meaning of Nouveau Christianisme.
1.12.1829
"
"Saint-Simon, after having in his early writings tried to reorganise
society in the name of Science, after having later renewed the same attempt
in the name of Industry, realized that he had mistaken the means for
the end; that it is in the name of their sympathies that one
must speak to men, and above all, in the name of their religious
sympathies which should summarize all others."
Quotes from
"The Spirit of the Age", by
John Stuart Mill, a series of
articles in The Examiner 6.1.1831 to 29.5.1831.
The Examiner 9.1.1831.
MillCW22 p.228:
The conviction is already not far from being universal, that the times are
pregnant with change; and that the nineteenth century will be known to
posterity as the era of one of the greatest revolutions of which history
has preserved the remembrance, in the
human mind, and in
the whole constitution of human society.
The Examiner 23.1.1831
MillCW22 p.238:
The Examiner 6.2.1831.
Mill, J.S. 1976 p.176,
MillCW22 p.252
Society may be said to be in its natural state, when worldly power, and
moral influence, are habitually and undisputedly exercised by the fittest
persons whom the existing state of society affords. Or, to be more
explicit; when on the one hand, the temporal, or, as the French would say,
the material [p.177] interests of the community, are managed by
those of its members who possess the greatest capacity for such management;
and on the other hand, those whose opinions the people follow, whose
feelings they imbibe, and who practically and by common consent, perform,
no matter under what original title, the office of thinking for the people,
are persons better qualified than any others whom the civilization of the
age and country affords to think and judge rightly and usefully.
The Examiner 13.3.1831
MillCW22 p.278:
The Examiner 3.4.1831
MillCW22 p.289
The Examiner 15.5.1831
MillCW22 p.304:
The Examiner 29.5.1831
MillCW22 p.312:
Born Montpellier, 19.1.1798. From about the age of 20 (1818?) he taught
mathematics in Paris. As a result of his association with Saint-Simon he
also wrote philosophical articles for journals. At about 28 (1826?) he
began a series of philosophical lectures which attracted considerable
attention; but after the third of these, he attempted suicide. Two years
later he was well enough to resume his lectures. He maintained himself by
teaching and examining mathematics. Lawsuits, however, resulted in his
losing a great part of his income. John Stuart Mill (who never met Comte),
raised money to support him. When this could not be renewed, Comte broke of
relations with Mill. An appeal was made on his behalf by influential men in
France, which resulted in a small income, sufficient to live on, for the
rest of his life. In 1848 Comte founded the Positivist Society. From 1849
to 1851 he lectured on his philosophy at the Palais Royal.
J.S. Mill's description of Comte's Positivism
"- We have no knowledge of anything but Phenomena; and our knowledge
of
phenomena is relative, not absolute. We know not the essence, nor the
real mode of production, of any fact, but only its relation to other
facts in the way of succession or of similitude. These relations are
constant; that is, always the same in the same circumstances. The
constant resemblances which link phenomena together, and the constant
sequences which unite them as antecedent and consequent, are termed
their laws. The laws of phenomena are all we know respecting them.
Their essential nature, and their ultimate causes, either efficient
or final, are unknown and inscrutable to us."
(Mill, J.S.
1865/Comte/1969 pp 265-266)
Comte extracts -
Cours de Philosophic Positive (Synoptic Table) -
1853 Condensed (English)
version
John Stuart Mill, Saint Simon and the origins of sociology
Saint Simon and the Saint Simonists
NATURAL >> TRANSITORY >> NATURAL
"The affairs of mankind, or of any of those smaller political
societies which we call nations, are always either in one or the other of
two states, one of them in its nature durable, the other essentially
transitory. The former of these we may term the natural state, the
latter the transitional." (The Examiner 6.2.1831)
"Saint Simon began with a predominantly optimistic view of
industrial society - the rapid progress of all productive forces, he
thought,
would soon blot out the growing antagonisms and the revolutionary upheavals
within this social system. The new industrial order was above all a
positive one, representing the affirmation and fruition of all human
endeavour for a happy and abundant life. It was not necessary to go beyond
the given; philosophy and social theory needed but to understand and
organise the facts. Truth was to be derived from the facts and from them
alone. Saint-Simon thus became the founder of modern positivism"
(Marcuse, H.
1941/1955 p.331, referring to Memoire sur la Science de
l'Homme,
written in 1813)
"fanaticized by principles and doctrines similar to those which M. de Saint
Simon professes"
Polytheist ideology
Social order based on slavery
Theological ideology
Feudal social order
[E]very social regime is an application of a philosophic system, and...
consequently it is impossible to institute a new regime, without having
first established the new philosophical system to which it should
correspond. (Quoted
Manuel, F.E. 1963 p.233)
The religious doctrine of Saint-Simon has this unitary
character which should gather about it all the men of the future. It puts
neither spirit above matter, nor matter above
spirit. It considers them as intimately united one with the other,
as being the condition one of the other, as being the two modes in which
being is manifest, living being, sympathetic being."
The "Spirit of the Age" is in some measure a novel expression. I do not
believe it is to be met in any work exceeding fifty years in antiquity. The
idea of comparing one's own age with former ages, or with our notion of
those which are yet to come, had occurred to philosophers, but it never
before was itself the dominant idea of any age.
etc
The first of the leading peculiarities of the present age is that it is
an age of transition. Mankind have outgrown old institutions and old
doctrines, and have not yet acquired new ones. When we say outgrown, we
intend to prejudge nothing. A man may not be either better or happier at
six-and-twenty, than he was at six years of age: but the same jacket which
fitted him then, will not fit him now.
I have said that the present age is an age of transition. I shall now
attempt to point out one of the most important consequences of this fact.
In all other conditions of mankind, the uninstructed have faith in the
instructed. in an age of transition, the divisions among the instructed
nullify their authority, and the uninstructed lose their faith in them. The
multitude are without a guide
; and society is exposed to all the errors and dangers which are to be
expected when persons who have never studied any branch of knowledge
comprehensively and as a whole attempt to judge for themselves upon
particular parts of it.
The affairs of mankind, or of any of those smaller political societies
which we call nations, are always either in one or the other of two states,
one of them in its nature durable, the other essentially transitory. The
former of these we may term the natural state, the latter the
transitional.
It is not necessary for me to point out that until a comparatively
recent period, none but the wealthy, and even, i might say, the hereditary
wealthy, had it in their power to acquire the intelligence, the knowledge,
and the habits, which are necessary to qualify a man, in any tolerable
degree, for managing the affairs of his country.
It has been stated, in the preceding paper, that the conditions which
confer worldly power are still, amidst all changes of circumstances, the
same as in the middle ages - namely, the possession of wealth, or the being
employed and trusted by the wealthy.
In commencing this series of papers, I intended, and attempted, that
the divisions of my discourse should correspond with those of my subject,
and that each number should comprehend within its own limits all which was
necessary to the expansion and illustration of one single idea. The nature
of the publication, which, as being read by more persons capable of
understanding the drift of such speculations (and by fewer, in proportion,
who are unfit for them) than any other single work, I considered myself
fortunate in being able to adopt as a vehicle for my ideas, compels me to
limit the length of each article more than is compatible with my original
plan. I can no longer always hope that every paper should be complete
within itself; and the present number, had it appeared in its proper place,
would have formed the continuation of the last.
In the countries that remained Catholic, but where the Catholic
hierarchy did not retain sufficient moral ascendancy to succeed in stopping
the progress of civilisation, the church was compelled, by the decline of
its separate influence, to link itself more and more closely with the
temporal sovereignty. And thus did it retard its own downfall, until the
spirit of the age became too strong for the two united, and both fell
together to the ground.
AUGUSTE COMTE, 1798-1857
Disciple of Saint-Simon from 1818-1824. Author of Cours de Philosophie
Positive (6 volumes), published 1830-1842; translated into English
1853. Word Sociology first coined in volume four (1838).
"The fundamental doctrine of a true philosophy, according to M.
Comte, and the character by which he defines Positive Philosophy, is the
following:
MANUEL, F.E. 1963 THE NEW WORLD OF HENRI SAINT-SIMON. UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS, NOTRE DAME, INDIANA.
Part 4: A New Theory of Society
19 Epochs Organic and Critical
20 Societies Military and Civil
21 The Physiology of Social Classes
p.244 Classes were the key to Saint Simon's philosophy of history. In
its very fabric history was the conflict of classes, and the historical
process could be explained solely in these terms. Other factors were
subsidiary phenomena, events merely affecting and modifying the class
conflict which remained the central thread.
Suggested bibliography entry:
Roberts, A. 3.2010- Saint Simon and Auguste Comte. London: Middlesex
University.
Available at http://studymore.org.uk/ysimcom.htm
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Headings
John Stuart Mill, Saint Simon and the origins of sociology
Quotes from J.S. Mill The Spirit of the Age
J.S. Mill's description of Comte's Positivism