Auguste Comte was born on 19 January 1798 in Montpellier. A French philosopher, Comte is regarded as the founder of positivism and one of the creators of sociology, a term he coined. He argued that human thought passes through three stages, theological, metaphysical and positive or scientific, and that society should be studied by the same empirical methods as the natural sciences. His major works include the Course of Positive Philosophy and the System of Positive Polity. Late in life he proposed a Religion of Humanity with rituals and a calendar, which attracted followers in France, Britain and Brazil. He had worked for a time as secretary to the social thinker Saint-Simon.
Before and after
- 10 September 1797Death of Mary Wollstonecraft
- 18 October 1797Treaty of Campo Formio
- 13 December 1797Birth of Heinrich Heine
- 1798Discovery of beryllium
- 19 January 1798Birth of Auguste Comte
- 26 April 1798Birth of Eugène Delacroix
- from 24 May 1798 to 24 September 1798Irish Rebellion of 1798
- from 10 June 1798 to 12 June 1798French invasion of Malta
- from 28 June 1798 to 25 March 1802War of the Second Coalition
More in Art, literature & culture
- from 18th century to 19th centuryRomanticism
- 1830Publication of Book of Mormon
- 1890Rise of Art Nouveau
- c. 1900sRise of Expressionism
- 1909Rise of Futurism
- c. 1910sRise of Dada
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 18th century.