Session 3: Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

This session will cover the author of the word “sociology”, August Comte. He often engaged in theorizing the social world in order to attempt to discover invariant laws. Terms like “positivism”, “the law of the three stages” and “Functionalism” are prominent topics in this session. Comte believed that positivism could both advance science (theory) and change the ways people live their lives (practice).