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Auguste Comte
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Auguste Comte
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Agathon (centre) greeting guests in "Plato's Symposium" oil on canvas by Anselm Feuerbach, 1869; in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Philosophy 101
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Auguste Comte
Auguste Comte Auguste Comte, drawing by Tony Toullion, 19th century; in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

Auguste Comte

French philosopher
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Also known as: Isidore-Auguste-Marie-François-Xavier Comte
Written by
Harry Elmer Barnes
Historian, sociologist, and writer. Author of A History of Historical Writing.
Harry Elmer BarnesAll
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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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Auguste Comte (born January 19, 1798, Montpellier, France—died September 5, 1857, Paris) was a French philosopher known as the founder of sociology and of positivism. Comte gave the science of sociology its name and established the new subject in a systematic fashion. Comte’s father, Louis Comte, a tax official, and his mother, Rosalie Boyer, were strongly royalist and deeply sincere Roman Catholics. But their sympathies were at odds with the republicanism and skepticism that swept...

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