Auguste Comte

On this date in 1798, Auguste Comte, the founder of Positivism, was born. A French mathematical prodigy, Comte rejected belief in God by age 14. He gave a series of lectures on Positive Philosophy in 1826, which was eventually published. He wrote: "The law is this: that each of our leading conceptions -- each branch of our knowledge -- passes successively through three different theoretical conditions: the Theological, or fictitious; the Metaphysical, or abstract; and the Scientific, or positive." His General View of Positivism was published in 1848. Auguste Comte is considered to be the "father" of sociology. D. 1857.