If we leave aside the conception of the “faculties” which Comte accepted rather hastily at the hands of the Scottish school and of Gall, and the “cerebral table” which he believed to be once for all constructed, his psychology contained more than one important and fertile seed. To the eclectic psychology, which is not positive, Comte substituted two sciences which are such. In the first place, an experimental science of the psychical phenomena studied in their relation to their organic conditions: it is the physiological psychology of which no one to-day questions the legitimacy. Then, by the introduction of the sociological point of view, Comte opened the way to a whole series of studies which begin to be developed, (social psychology, ethnical psychology, psychology of the masses, etc). It is often said that sociological laws have their foundation in psychological laws. But the reverse is no less true. The psychological laws, at least the mental and moral laws, are, at the same time, sociological laws, since they are only revealed in the study of the intellectual history of the human species. “We must not explain humanity by man, but man by humanity.” To the “Τγνῶθι σεαυτόν” of ancient psychology, the positive method substitutes this precept: “To know yourself, know history.” Man only becomes conscious of himself, when he becomes aware of his place in the evolution of Humanity. FOOTNOTES: [180] Correspondance de Comte, et de John Stuart Mill, p. 162 (27 février 1843.) p. 365 (21 oct. 1844). [181] Pol. pos., IV, Appendix, p. 218. [182] Lettres à Valat, p. 89-91. [183] Cours, III. 614-16. [184] Cours, III, 618-19. [185] Cours, III, 601-2; 621-22. [186] Cours, III, 611. [187] Lettres à Valat, p. 134 (8 septembre 1824). [188] Cours, III, 631-2.--Gall, Anatomie and physiologie du système nerveux, Paris 1810, II, 6-7. [189] Cours, III, 626-7. [190] Cours, III, 666-8. [191] Cours, III, 654-5. [192] Cours, III, 15-26. [193] Pol. pos., I, 729. [194] Pol. pos., I, 671-2. [195] Pol. pos., I, 672-3. [196] Pol. pos., I, 731-2. [197] Cours, III, 596-8; Pol. pos. I, 598-9. [198] Pol. pos. I, 727. [199] Pol. pos. II, 383. [200] Pol. pos. I, 712-14. [201] Cours, III, 660. [202] Pol. pos., IV, Appendice, p. 218. [203] Maine de Biran, _œuvres inédites_ (éd. Cousin), II, 55-58. BOOK III CHAPTER I THE TRANSITION FROM ANIMALITY TO HUMANITY. ART AND LANGUAGE