-
Auguste Comte (1798-1857) began giving lectures on what he called "positive philosophy", followed by what some have considered to be a “serious nervous breakdown”. Once he recovered from it, he began delivering his lectures again; this time more successfully. So successful, in fact, that he went on to publish 6 volumes dedicated to them which he called Cours de Philsophie Positive. He used this philosophy to understand the relationship between human relationships and action.
-
The Law of Three Stages was a theory of human intellectual development proposed by Comte in 1840, the stages being anthropomorphic, or theological, metaphysical, and science, or “positive”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqv4Q5e8-R4 -
1840 Although an actual date is unknown, Comte’s theory of Social Statics and Dynamics became a staple in the study of sociology. Social Statics is mostly focused on how order is maintained in society, while Social Dynamics is focused on the way society changes over time. Social Statics observes the way laws and rules affect the way society behaves. Social Dynamics is the process through which society changes.
-
Comte believed that the purpose of science moving forward should be only for improving society. According to him, social phenomena could be explained in the same way that gravity rotates celestial bodies.
-
Comte was inspired by Clotilde de Vaux in 1845 to create the Religion of Humanity. Though their relationship was officially platonic, Comte’s obsession with de Vaux gave followers reason to believe there was an affair, despite de Vaux being married.
-
Comte wrote System of Positive Polity following the death of Clotilde de Vaux, a woman whom he had a platonic relationship with but had fallen deeply in love. He believed that the ideal government would by comprised of an “intellectual elite”, he replaced the worship of God with the “Religion of Humanity”. -
Helen Longino (1974-Present) wrote "Can There Be Feminist Science?" in which she states, "...we think not of a feminist science, but about doing science as a feminist." It has often been said that she introduces feminists to philosophy of science rather than introducing feminism to philosophy of science. -
Longino believes that theories are the products of inquiry, and not the process of inquiry. Scientific inquiry is social in nature and that science should generally be a social practice. -
Longino considers race, gender, and class as features of social structure first and as characteristics of individuals only secondary. She uses the term contextual empiricism to explain how scientific knowledge and evidence is shaped by fact as well as personal experience.
-
Longino often refers to Thomas Kuhn's research to compare her own to, especially when she writes of the six virtues we use in the pursuit of epistemology. According to Longino, these virtues are empirical adequacy, novelty, ontological heterogeneity, complexity of interaction, applicability to human needs, and diffusion or decentralization of power. -
Longino writes “The disappearing of gender is the erasure from inquiry of a gradient of power that keeps women in a position of subordination.” This sentence is only one example from this article where she discusses the roles women are expected to take on in society. She also challenges the idea that the traditional virtues are purely cognitive.
-
Hypatia was a female mathematician and astronomer in Ancient Alexandria, Longino wrote an essay surveying 25 years of feminist epistemology in which she analyzes philosophical traditions and the feminist contributions to the philosophy of science.