“ V.--Psychology 188 BOOK III. CHAPTER I.--Transition from Animality to Humanity--Art and Language 213 “ II.--General Considerations on Social Science 230 “ III.--Social Statics 249 “ IV.--Social Dynamics 260 “ V.--The Philosophy of History 276 BOOK IV. CHAPTER I.--The Principles of Ethics 303 “ II.--Social Ethics 319 “ III.--The Idea of Humanity 334 CONCLUSION 343 THE PHILOSOPHY OF AUGUSTE COMTE. INTRODUCTION. I. Every new system of philosophy, however original in appearance, is more or less directly related to the doctrines which have preceded it. But it is also connected with more general conditions in a manner no less close, if not so immediately obvious. It depends upon a whole set of social conditions. The influence of the religious, political, economical, intellectual phenomena, in a word of the contemporary _milieu_ upon this system is as indisputable as its own influence upon the _milieu_. It is therefore not enough to study it as a self-sufficient whole. This whole which is in itself but a part, must be restored to its place within the greater whole which alone explains its essential characteristics. This rule of historical method, which Comte likes to recall, applies very well to his own system. In order to reach as complete an understanding as possible of his doctrine, to appreciate exactly its general orientation, to understand the importance which the author attaches in it to this or that part, the study of the text will not suffice. We must further take into account the historical circumstances in which the doctrine found its birth, the general movement of contemporary ideas, and the manifold influences which have reacted upon the mind of the philosopher.