Encyclopedic Law

The encyclopedia law (fr .: loi encyclopédique ) was set up by the French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857) in his main work "Cours de philosophie positive" as a hierarchical arrangement of the sciences and therefore also called "hiérarchie encyclopédique" by him referred to as "ordre encyclopédique" (encyclopedic order) or as "échelle encyclopédique" (encyclopedic scale).

The order of the sciences

The Encyclopedic Law states that there is an order of precedence for the basic, abstract sciences (the applied sciences are excluded). Due to the complexity of the methods of the respective science, Comte postulates a ranking:

Math - logic
Concrete Mathematics: Geometry and Mechanics; Astronomy - observation
Physics - observation, experiment
Chemistry - observation, experiment, classification
Biology - observation, experiment, classification and comparison
Sociology - observation, experiment, classification, comparison and historical method

The mathematics is the foundation par excellence, but Comte speaks her the guidance function from. The highest, because most complex, discipline is rather sociology . Comte sees it as the culmination of all sciences, as "human science".

literature

Werner Fuchs-Heinritz : Auguste Comte. Introduction to life and work . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1998. ISBN 3-531-13233-4 . There the chapter The Encyclopedic Law , pp. 146–155.

Footnotes

↑ Cours de philosophie positive , leçon 2, § V, no.1.
↑ Cours de philosophie positive , leçon 1, § V, no.5.
↑ Cours de philosophie positive , leçon 2, § III, no.4.
↑ Cours de philosophie positive , leçon 2, § I, no. 3. In the edition of the Librairie Larousse, Paris 1936, p. 54, footnote 1: “La philosophie positive doit emprunter aux diverse sciences les méthodes que chacune d'elles emploie de préférence: l'observation, procédé essentiel de la physique; l'expérimentation, celui de la chimie; la comparaison, celui de la biologie. "
^ Hermann Korte , Bernhard Schäfers (ed.): Introductory course in sociology . Vol. 2. Introduction to the history of sociology . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1992, p. 35.

[1] Cours de philosophie positive , leçon 2, § V, no.1.

[2] Cours de philosophie positive , leçon 1, § V, no.5.

[3] Cours de philosophie positive , leçon 2, § III, no.4.

[4] Cours de philosophie positive , leçon 2, § I, no. 3. In the edition of the Librairie Larousse, Paris 1936, p. 54, footnote 1: “La philosophie positive doit emprunter aux diverse sciences les méthodes que chacune d'elles emploie de préférence: l'observation, procédé essentiel de la physique; l'expérimentation, celui de la chimie; la comparaison, celui de la biologie. "

[5] Hermann Korte , Bernhard Schäfers (ed.): Introductory course in sociology . Vol. 2. Introduction to the history of sociology . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1992, p. 35.