[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
precepts of Bacon and the discourses of Descartes, have mistaken their
own dreams for science
Without saying whether it will ever be possible to establish a priori
a true method of investigation, independent of a philosophical study of
the sciences, it is clear that the thing has never been done yet, and that
we are not capable of doing it now. We cannot as yet explain the great
logical procedures, apart from their applications. If we ever do, it will
remain as necessary then as now to form good intellectual habits by
studying the regular application of the scientific methods which we shall
have attained.
This, then, is the first great result of the Positive Philosophy the
manifestation by experiment of the laws which rule the Intellect in the
investigation of truth; and, as a consequence the knowledge of the gen-
eral rules suitable for that object.
II. The second effect of the Positive Philosophy, an effect not less
important and far more urgently wanted, will be to regenerate Educa-
tion.
The best minds are agreed that our European education still essen-
tially theological, metaphysical, and literary must be superseded by a
Positive training, conformable to our time and needs. Even the govern-
ments of our day have shared, where they have not originated, the at-
tempts to establish positive instruction; and this is a striking indication
of the prevalent sense of what is wanted. While encouraging such
endeavours to the utmost, we must not however conceal from ourselves
38/Auguste Comte
that everything yet done is inadequate to the object. The present exclu-
sive speciality of our pursuits, and the consequent isolation of the sci-
ences, spoil our teaching. If any student desires to form an idea of natu-
ral philosophy as a whole, he is compelled to go through each depart-
ment as it is now taught, as if he were to be only an astronomer, or only
a chemist, so that, be his intellect what it may, his training must remain
very imperfect. And yet his object requires that he should obtain general
positive conceptions of all the classes of natural phenomena. It is such
an aggregate of conceptions, whether on a great or on a small scale,
which must henceforth be the permanent basis of all human combina-
tions. It will constitute the mind of future generations. In order to this
regeneration of our intellectual system, it is necesary that the sciences,
considered as branches from one trunk, should yield us, as a whole,
their chief methods and their most important results. The specialities of
science can be pursued by those whose vocation lies in that direction.
They are indispensable; and they are not likely to be neglected; but they
can never of themselves renovate our system of Education; and, to be of
their full use, they must rest upon the basis of that general instruction
which is a direct result of the Positive Philosophy.
III. The same special study of scientific generalities must also aid
the progress of the respective positive sciences: and this constitutes our
third head of advantages.
The divisions which we establish between the sciences are, though
not arbitrary, essentially artificial. The subject of our researches is one:
we divide it for our convenience, in order to deal the more easily with its
difficulties. But it sometimes happens and especially with the most
important doctrines of each science that we need what we cannot ob-
tain under the present isolation of the sciences, a combination of sev-
eral special points of view; and for want of this, very important prob-
lems wait for their solution much longer than they otherwise need do. To
go back into the past for an example: Descartes grand Conception with
regard to analytical geometry is a discovery which has changed the whole
aspect of mathematical science, and yielded the germ of all future
progress; and it issued from the union of two sciences which had always
before been separately regarded and pursued. The case of pendmg ques-
tions is yet more impressive; as, for instance, in Chemistry, the doctrine
of Definite Proportions. Without entering upon the discussion of the
fundamental principle of this theory, we may say with assurance that, in
order to determine it in order to determine whether it is a law of nature
Positive Philosophy/39
that atoms should necessarily combine in fixed numbers, it will be
indispensable that the chemical point of view should be united with the
physiological. The failure of the theory with regard to organic bodies
indicates that the cause of this immense exception must be investigated;
and such an inquiry belongs as much to physiology as to chemistry.
Again, it is as yet undecided whether azote is a simple or a compound
body. It was concluded by almost all chemists that azote is a simple
body; the illustrious Berzelius hesitated, on purely chemical consider-
ations; but he was also influenced by the physiological observation that
animals which receive no azote in their food have as much of it in their
tissues as carnivorous animals. From this we see how physiology must
unite with chemistry to inform us whether azote is simple or compound,
and to institute a new series of researches upon the relation between the
composition of living bodies and their mode of alimentation.
Such is the advantage which, in the third place, we shall owe to
Positive philosophy the elucidation of the respective sciences by their
combination. In the fourth place
IV. The Positive Philosophy offers the only solid basis for that So-
cial Reorganization which must succeed the critical condition in which
the most civilized nations are now living.
It cannot be necessary to prove to anybody who reads this work that
Ideas govern the world, or throw it into chaos; in other words, that all
social mechanism rests upon opinions. The great political and moral
crisis that societies ale now undergoing is shown by a rigid analysis to
arise out of intellectual anarchy. While stability in fundamental maxims
is the first condition of genuine social order, we are suffering under an
utter disagreement which may be called universal. Till a certain number
of general ideas can be acknowledged as a rallying-point of social doc-
trine, the nations will remain in a revolutionary state, whatever palliatives
may be devised; and their institutions can be only provisional. But when-
ever the necessary agreement on first principles can be obtained, appro-
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]