Spencer How Would Comte Explain the Relation

Spencer How would Comte explain the relation of religion and science in modern society? Can his law of 3 stages be expanded to account for this? In what ways? If Comte were alive today to add a fourth stage to his theory, what do you think the stage would be and why? Comte's belief that individuals seek theological, metaphysical, and finally abstract explanations to under stand the world, as noted in Ritzer's Sociological Theory, from which they finally extrapolate an abstract or metaphysical conception of the world, might be viewed not only as a particular sociological theory, but also a particular product of a particular society.

Comte wrote in a world where religion, specifically the Christian religion formed the core of human understanding of the human animal's purpose in the world. But what occurs when the human animal is viewed, indeed, as only that, as an animal, rather than located in a theological framework? If Comte were to view modern society, and to acknowledge the presence of religion and science in that society, the philosopher would have to readjust his tri-part structure of the human mind.

Ironically, the last part of his theoretical structure of thought would suit the scientific world quite well. The stress upon finding positive data with the senses to validate one's thoughts, and then to finally create an abstract principle from this data, fits the scientific, experimental method quite well in terms of its structuring of setting a hypothesis for an experiment, collecting data, and arriving at a general principle form those specifics.

But although Comte might not need to question his three-part structure, he would have to grapple with a world that no longer seeks to understand itself first and foremost in theological terms. Even individuals whom might characterize themselves as religious must justify this stress upon religion in a scientific world, given the current popularity of secular understanding in post-modern society. A stress upon religion upon the parts of all individuals cannot simply be assumed. Furthermore, the metaphysical element that derives from the theological.