PHIL386 Lecture 2: week 2 comte notes.rtf
18 Mar 2016
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Discovered fundamental law: each of our principal concepions, each branch of our knowledge, passes in succession through three diferent theoreical states: the theological or icious state, the metaphysical or abstract state, and the scieniic or posiive state. The theological method is the necessary staring point of human intelligence; the posiive method represents its ixed and deiniive state; the metaphysical method serves only as a transiional method. Theological state: inner nature of beings; toward the irst and inal causes of phenomena that it observes; absolute knowledge; supernatural agents. Metaphysical state: simple, general modiicaion of irst state; abstract forces, real eniies or personiied abstracions inherent in the diferent beings in the world; give rise by themselves to all phenomena observed. Posiive state: impossible to atain absolute truth; no search for origin of universe; discover through reasoning and observaion the actual laws of phenomena; facts reduced to real terms. Metaphysical state: nature is the source of all phenomena.
