孔德的思想三阶段原理 Comte''''s The law of three stages

孔德认为，他发现了一条伟大的根本规律，这条规律就是：我们的每一种主要观点，每一个知识部门，都先后经历了三个不同的理论阶段：神学阶段，又名虚构阶段；形而上学阶段，又名抽象阶段；科学阶段，又名实证阶段。

在神学阶段，人们自由幻想，企图探索万物内在本性；寻找现象的根源，追究事物最后的原因，要求获得绝对的知识，但这是办不到的事，于是他们便求助于最后原因，要求获得绝对的知识，但这也是办不到的。于是他们便求助于超自然的力量——神，来解释，因此这时宗教在各种思想体系中占主导地位。
形而上学阶段是神学阶段的变相，这时人们以形而上学（超经验）的抽象概念代替超自然的神力来解释一切，要求获得关于事物的本质的绝对知识，并独断地把这些抽象的概念当作绝对知识。例如各川独断的哲学体系和被认为绝对的真理的理论就是由这类概念构成的。
在实证阶段，人们承认不能获绝对的概念，于是不再探索宇宙的起源和目的，不再求知各川现象的内在原因，而只是借助于推理和观察，以便发现现象之间不变的先后关系和相似关系，它把对一切事物的研究和解释都局限于现象世界的范围。对事物和世界的这种态度正是实证科学的态度，实证阶段也就是科学阶段，实证的哲学方法就是科学的方法。

三阶段的关系：
孔德认为：神学阶段是人类思想智 力发展的必然的出发点，实证阶段是人类思想发展的最高阶段。形而上学阶段，神学的思想和信念遭到了批判，实证阶段的思想信念的产生和发展的条件正在形成，因此形而上学阶段是由神学到实证阶段的过渡，也叫过渡阶段。
孔德又将他发现的这一人类思想发展的规律应用于个人。对于个人而言，个人智力的发展是对这一规律的一种确证，正如只要人类继续存在，其思想发展必经这三个阶段：一个人只要不早折，其思想必经这三个阶段。
孔德把人类思想发展同社会政治制度以及历史时代的发展联系起来，一定的社会政治制度与一定的思想发展形态相一致。与神学阶段相适应的是欧洲古代和中世纪的神权政治和军事统治的社会秩序，与形而上学阶段相适应的是14－18世纪欧洲“启蒙时代”的由抽象的民主和平等原则支配的政治制度，与实证阶段相适应的是工业社会，二者在精神／起源和目的方面都相似。正如实证阶段是人类思想发展的最高阶段一样，工业社会也是社会发展的最高阶段。
工业社会中的特点是：经济生活成为人们的中心；科学家成了社会的支配者；不仅借助于自然科学，而借助于社会学来使整个社会成为以“和谐”、”秩序“和”进步“为特征的社会。

Comte's the law of three stages

Comte said, the history of ideas shows that there has been a clearmovement of thought through three stages, each stage representing adifferent way of discovering truth.
The first stage is Theological.in which people explain phenomena inreference to divine causal forces.
The second stage is metaphysical, which replaces human-centeredconcepts of divinity with impersonal and abstract force.
The third stage is positivistic, or scientific, in that only theconstant relations between phenomena  areconsidered and all attempts to explain things by references tobeings beyond our experience are given up. He called this evolutionform one stage to another the law of the three stages.

so late,     tobecontinued....   


das folgende wird am 18. Juli 2007 geschrieben.

the course of the three stages is :

For example, in both Greek mythology and traditional Christianity,we find frequent instances of the intervention of the gods or ofGod. This had its counterpart in political theory in the theory ofdivine right of kings. But this theological approach is supersededby metaphysics, which speaks of a necessary being as theexplaination for the existence of finite things.
This concept of necessary being, Comte says, is abstract andimpersonal, and although it goes beyond the idea of some capriciousbeing acting upon the physical world, it does not overcome theuselessness of dogmastism. Its counterpart in political thought isthe attempt to formulate abstract principles such as natural rightsor the sovereignty of the people. Comte harshly rejected thepolitical structures in both of these stages. The theologicalstage, he argued, results in slavery and military states. Themetaphysical stage involves the assumptions of liveral democracy,and military stages. The metaphysical stage involves theassumptions of liveral democarcy , and unfounded dogmas such as theclear scientific fact that people are unequal and have diffeentcapacities and must, therefore, ahve different functions insociety. To deal effectively with such questions of political orderrequired a carefully worked out science of society, which Comte didnot find alredy available and which he, therefore, set out tocreate, calling it sociology.


the conception of "sociology" of Comte

sociology of Comte illustrates his account of the development ofknowledge. For in his theory, the movement of thought is fromdecreasing generality to increasing complexity and from theabstract to the concrete.
He notes this particularly with the five major sciences:Mathematics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Biology, PHysics, andscince-sociology with be the sixth. and it deals with the relationsof human beigns to each other in society.