Auguste Comte died on 5 September 1857 in Paris, aged 59. A French philosopher, Comte is regarded as the founder of positivism and one of the creators of sociology, a term he coined. He argued that human thought passes through three stages, theological, metaphysical and positive or scientific, and that society should be studied by the same empirical methods as the natural sciences. His major works include the Course of Positive Philosophy and the System of Positive Polity. Late in life he proposed a Religion of Humanity with rituals and a calendar, which attracted followers in France, Britain and Brazil. He had worked for a time as secretary to the social thinker Saint-Simon.
Before and after
- 13 May 1857Birth of Ronald Ross
- 31 May 1857Birth of Pius XI
- from 8 June 1857 to 21 September 1857Siege of Delhi
- 5 July 1857Birth of Clara Zetkin
- 5 September 1857Death of Auguste Comte
- 5 September 1857Birth of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
- 15 September 1857Birth of William Howard Taft
- 26 November 1857Birth of Ferdinand de Saussure
- 3 December 1857Birth of Joseph Conrad
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The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.