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VII

It is hardly surprising that, with this ambitious conception of the task of the single theoretical science of society which he admits into his system, Comte should have nothing but contempt for the already existing social disciplines. It would hardly be worthwhile to dwell on this attitude if it were not so characteristic of the view taken at all times of the social sciences by men blinded by the scientistic prejudice, and if his own efforts had not, at least in part, to be explained by his almost complete ignorance of the achievements of the then existing social sciences. Some, as particularly the study of language, he regards as hardly worth mentioning.16.55 But he takes the trouble to denounce political economy at some length, and here his severity stands in a strange contrast to his exceedingly slender knowledge of the object of his abuse. Indeed, as even one of his admirers, who has devoted a whole book to Comte's relation to economics, 16.56 could not help emphasizing, his knowledge of economics was virtually nonexistent. He knew and even admired Adam Smith, partly for his descriptive work in economics, but mainly for his History of Astronomy. In his early years he had made the acquaintance of J. B. Say and some other members of the same circle, particularly Destutt de Tracy. But the latter's treatment of economics in his great treatise on ``ideology'' between logic and morals appeared to Comte merely a frank admission of the ``metaphysical'' character of economics.16.57 For the rest, the economists did not seem to Comte to be worth bothering about. He knew a priori that they had merely performed their necessary destructive role, typical representatives of the negative or revolutionary spirit which was characteristic of the metaphysical phase. That no positive contribution to the reorganization of society could be expected from them was evident from the fact that they had not been trained as scientists: ``Being almost invariably lawyers or literary men, they had no opportunity of discipline in that spirit of positive rationality which they suppose they have introduced into their researches. Precluded by their education from any idea of scientific observation of even the smallest phenomena, from any notions of natural laws, from all perception of what demonstration is, they must obviously be incapable of applying a method in which they had no practice to the most difficult of all analyses.''16.58 Comte indeed would admit to the study of sociology only men who had successively and successfully mastered all the other sciences and thus properly prepared themselves for the most difficult task of the study of the most complex of all phenomena.16.59 Although the further development of the new science could not again present difficulties as great as those he had himself surmounted in first creating it,16.60 only the very best minds could hope successfully to grapple with them. The special difficulty of this task arises from the absolute necessity of dealing with all aspects of society at the same time, a necessity dictated by the particularly close ``consensus '' of all social phenomena. To have sinned against this principle and to have attempted to deal with economic phenomena in isolation, ``apart from the analysis of the intellectual, moral, and political state of society,''16.61 is of one his main reproaches against the economists. their ``pretended science'' presents to ``all competent and experienced judges most decidedly the character of purely metaphysical concepts.''16.62 ``If one considers impartially the sterile disputes which divide them concerning the most elementary concepts of value, utility, production, etc., one may fancy oneself attending the strangest debates of medieval scholastics on the fundamental attributes of their metaphysical entities.''16.63 But the main defect of political economy is its conclusion, ``the sterile aphorism of absolute industrial liberty,''16.64 the belief that there is no need of some ``special institution immediately charged with the task of regularizing the spontaneous coordination'' which should be regarded as merely offering the opportunity for imposing real organization.16.65 And he particularly condemns the tendency of political economy to ``answer to all complaints that in the long run all classes, and especially the one most injured on the existing occasion, will enjoy a real and permanent satisfaction; a reply which will be regarded as derisive, as long as man's life is incapable of being indefinitely lengthened.''16.66


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