Appeal to Conservatives (1889)

Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte (January 19, 1798 - September 5, 1857) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer who developed the positivist theory. He is frequently recognized as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense. Comte's theories were also crucial to the formation of sociology; in fact, he coined the name and saw sociology as the pinnacle of the sciences. Comte's work, influenced by Henri de Saint-Simon, tried to repair the social chaos caused by the French Revolution, which he believed signaled the impending transition to a new form of society. He attempted to develop positivism, a new social theory based on science. He had a significant influence on nineteenth-century thought, influencing the work of social theorists like John Stuart Mill and George Eliot. His concept of Sociologie and social evolutionism set the tone for early social theorists and anthropologists such as Harriet Martineau and Herbert Spencer, maturing into contemporary academic sociology as realistic and objective social study presented by Émile Durkheim. Comte's social theories culminated in his "Religion of Humanity," which foreshadowed the 19th-century emergence of non-theistic religious humanist and secular humanist organizations. He may have also invented the term altruisme (altruism).