History of Western Philosophy
4.11.2.2 Comte's Scheme of Sciences
Builds to the last and most complex science which, according to the early Comte, is social science. Social science includes:
An ideal of humanity [definitive stage is positive] Antidote to misgovernment is public opinion [he was against representative government]
4.11.2.3 A theory of history
Progress to the ideal
4.11.2.4 Ethics
Later in his career Comte adds ethics as the seventh and highest science:
Feelings and practice paramount Subjective method [A progression in his view over his positivism.]
4.12 MODERN PHILOSOPHY: BRITISH UTILITARIANISM
We have seen the origin of utilitarianism in Comte's ideas utilitarianism must share with positivism the idea of a positive calculation: that a positive calculation of utility is possible and meaningful
4.12.1 Jeremy Bentham [1748-1832]:
An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, 1789. The utility principle based on pleasure and pain [sources of pleasure and pain: physical, political, social, religious]
The Hedonistic Calculus: a quantitative measure of pleasures and pains is to be used in determining actions. Factors or dimension are:
- Intensity, 2. Duration, 3. Degree of certainty, 4. Remoteness, 5. Fecundity [chance of being followed by a similar sensation], 6. Purity [opposite of fecundity], 7. Extent [number of persons affected]
Precursor of utility theory, optimization theory as a tool.
4.12.2 John Stuart Mill [1806 1873]
Mill threads together empiricism and positivism [Mill's philosophy is significantly positivist even when it is not overtly so]: Later day British Empiricism [this includes Mill] has much in common with positivism [and herein lies the weakness of Mill's method of empirical logic and inductive inference, his law of causation, and rejection of a priori truthsdespite his great prolificacy and practical influence].
Mill's interest in science, like Saint-Simon's and Comte's, is motivated by his interest in social reform
4.12.2.1 The external world and the self
Mill holds that we can know only phenomena [though he admits the thing-in-itself]Mill's metaphysics is too limited to hold present interest
4.12.2.2 Mental and moral sciences
For social reform Mill calls for a reform of the mental and moral sciences