Three-stage law

The three-stage law (or law of intellectual development ) of the philosopher Auguste Comte states that humanity goes through three stages of thinking / knowing until it reaches the optimal state. These are the theological, the metaphysical and the positive stage. Going through is comparable to the maturation of a person. The theological stage is identified in Comte's theory with the childhood of mankind, the metaphysical with puberty and the positive with the “male state of mind”. The theory of the three-stage law has a strongly teleological character; That is, it assumes that the development of human history is directed towards a specific goal that is fixed from the start.

The three stages

The theological or fictional stage

According to the Comte, the theological stage is only provisional and has a preparatory function in relation to the following stages. People's curiosity drives them to ask questions about their environment. He searches for the causes and the mode of production of the phenomena that impress him. So according to absolute knowledge. These needs are satisfied by man's initial inclination to equalize all phenomena with those of his own production. So they seem familiar. The theological stage is divided into three main forms: into fetishism, polytheism and monotheism.

The fetishism

The most pronounced of these three main forms is fetishism . Here, a life similar to ours is assigned to all external bodies. But these bodies have a more powerful effect. The worship of the heavenly bodies is characteristic of this phase, it hardly differs from the state of mind of animals.

Polytheism

While instinct and imagination have prevailed in human theories up to this point, imagination now comes to the fore. Life is withdrawn from material objects and transferred to fictitious, mostly invisible beings. Your active intervention is now the cause of all occurring phenomena. This can be illustrated using the example of ancient cultures. There, gods responsible for each area developed from originally locally worshiped deities . Was worshiped z. B. not only the sea, but also a god of the seas, such as the Greek Poseidon or the Roman Neptunus .

Monotheism

In this phase the decline of the initial philosophy begins. The imagination is increasingly replacing the idea that all natural phenomena are bound by unchangeable laws.

The metaphysical or abstract stage

The second stage is an introduction to the third and final stage. Comte calls the metaphysical stage a chronic illness, which is necessary and inevitable.

At this stage, too, the basic questions remain the same: Man is still looking for absolute knowledge, only the attempt at a solution is different. There are no longer fictional, but abstract entities, e.g. B. nature, used to explain. The imagination becomes less important and the real observation, the mind, gains ground and is thus prepared for the positive stage. Comte describes the metaphysical stage as inconsistent, because the principles of the theological system are retained. Metaphysics now faces the alternative of restoring the theological stage or of dissolving the rule of theology.

The positive or scientific stage

The intelligence that has gradually become free has now reached the positive stage via the necessary preliminary stages, which represents the end point and thus the optimal state. The basis of this stage is that it is impossible to attain absolute knowledge. The field of real observations is developing, which can be the only possible basis for knowledge ( positivism ). Comte cites the basic rule that an assertion can only be meaningful if it relates to a fact that has already been there and is therefore understandable.

The imagination becomes less important and subordinates to observation. This, according to Comte, achieves a completely normal state of mind. The fundamental difference between this stage and the first two is that the focus here is on simple research into laws. However, it must be taken into account that only part of a phenomenon can be considered. The loss of a meaning would mean that a number of phenomena would remain hidden from humanity. The gain of a sense would produce new knowledge. Only that part of a phenomenon that we can perceive with our senses can only be used scientifically.

The laws must not be just a collection of facts. They are not made up of simple facts, but are primarily intended to serve rational foresight. Comte calls this "seeing to foresee". It should therefore be researched what is in order to be able to see what will be due to the immutability of the laws of nature.

Summary

In his law of three stages, Comte shows that the human spirit must first develop by going through these stages until it can finally use its intelligence that has become free. In the positive stage, a person is able to view phenomena critically and to make predictions based on the knowledge gained. The individual sciences have become positive across the individual stages. In the positive stage, all sciences are ultimately positive, with sociology being the culmination of all sciences. It combines all the characteristics of the other individual sciences.

literature

Comte, Auguste. The three-stage law. In: Dreitzel, Hans Peter, 1967. Social change. Civilization and progress as categories of sociological theory. Neuwied: Luchterhand.