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Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
In the year 1826 Comte was working on volume one of his 6 volume series called "Course of Positive Philosophy". At this point in time Comte took a break from this work to give public lectures on positive philosophy. Shorty after the first lecture he suffered a cerebral crisis that kept him from the public until 1844. He would finish volume six of "Course" in 1842. Auguste Comte, Cours de philosophie positive, leçons 46–51, Paris: Hermann, 2012. -
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
Arguably, Comte's most well known principal is his law of three stages published in The Course of Positive Philosphy. This law describes that society and science as a whole can be grouped into the theological stage, the metaphysical stage, and the positive stage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aN_03fK_14 Auguste Comte, Cours de philosophie positive, leçons 46–51, Paris: Hermann, 2012. -
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
In 1849 Comte founded the Religion of Humanity. It was based on the principles on traditional religion, except replacing the concept of a God with that of humanity -
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
One of Comte's final works was the System of Positive Politi. It was a system he wrote about that described how he believed that moral progression and knowledge should be at the forefront of society and the political structure should be based on it. Comte died shortly after, but not before his ideas were widely ridiculed. -
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David Bloor (1942-Present)
Bloor founds the Strong Program. The strong program was geared towards the "new" form of sociology. "The newer approach has tried to use sociological methods to explain why scientists believe what they do, why they behave as they do, and how scientific thinking and practice change over time" (Godfrey-Smith). Furthermore, the program focused heavily on the "symmetry principle" which is saying that beliefs and behavior should be examined with a similar approach.
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David Bloor (1942-Present)
Bloor gives his thesis on speech and the regulation of behavior and is awarded his first PHD by the University of Edinburgh. While this work may appear a small and necessary task, it was his gateway to the scientific limelight that would allow the strong program to see the light of day. -
David Bloor (1942-Present)
Bloor published "Knowledge and Social Imagery". It is here he describes the four norms of the strong program being Causality (Concern with the conditions that bring about belief or states of knowledge), Impartiality (Unconcerned with respect to success or failure), Symmetry (The same types of cause would explain true or false beliefs), and Reflexivity (patterns of explanation have to be applicable to sociology itself). -
David Bloor (1942-Present)
Bloor publishes Remember the Strong Program as a defense to the program's critiques. In it, he describes a theory referred to as "Bartlett's Laws". Both laws, Bloor explains, were strikingly confirmed multiple times over the years by the program.