theological or speculative hypothesis was admitted. The theory was based on observation, insufficient and unwarrantably generalized though it was.
b) Montesquieu (1689–1755) "Laws are the necessary relations which are derived from the nature of things."
c) Turgot (1727–1781) advanced a theory of indefinite and continuous progress.
d) Rousseau (1712–1778) in his Discours sur l'Origin de l'inégalité parmi les hommes attempted to solve the economic question which he clearly recognized as fundamental.
e) Adam Smith (1723–1790) was the enunciator of social laws governing the phenomena connected with wealth.
f) Bentham (1749–1832) recognized the interrelation of economic and ethical social factors.
g) John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) carried further the ideal of reasoned intervention. "With him . . . . ends the metaphysical period of political economy and the social sciences."
h) Auguste Comte (1798–1857) the so-called "father of Sociology."
III. The System of Auguste Comte.
Comte: Philosophie Positive. Martineau's Tr., Vol. II, Chaps, vii–xi.
J. S. Mill: The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte, Boston, 1871.
Spencer: Of the Classification of the Sciences. Recent Discussions.
Ward: Dynamic Sociology. New York, 1883, Vol. I., Chap. i.
The Place of Sociology among the Sciences. American Journal of Sociology, July, 1895.
Fiske: Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy. Boston, 1875, Vol. I., Chap. xii.
1. The doctrine of the three stages.
All bodies of human thought pass through three stages:
a) The theological or fictitious (personal or volitional; Mill.)
b) The metaphysical or abstract (abstractional or ontological; Mill.)
c) The scientific or positive (phenomenal or experimental; Mill.)
