Organism and environment in Auguste Comte. (July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McVeigh, Ryan
• Is Part Of: History of the human sciences. Volume 34:Number 3/4(2021)
• Page Start: 76
• Page End: 97
• Publication Date: 2021-07
• Subjects: biosocial -- Auguste Comte -- environment -- epigenetics -- organism; Social sciences -- History -- Periodicals; 300.9
• DOI: 10.1177/0952695120917908
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0952-6951

Abstract

This article focuses on Auguste Comte's understanding of the organism–environment relationship. It makes three key claims therein: (a) Comte's metaphysical position privileged materiality and relativized the intellect along two dimensions: one related to the biological organism, one related to the social environment; (b) this twofold materiality confounds attempts to reduce cognition to either nature or nurture, so Comte's position has interesting parallels to the field of 'epigenetics', which sees the social environment as a causative factor in biology; and (c) although Comte ultimately diverged from the 'postgenomic' view in crucial ways, he remains a forerunner of the trend towards viewing the social and biological as entangled. Tending to these dimensions challenges the view that Comte is notable from a classical standpoint but ignorable from a contemporary one. It consequently invites renewed attention to his theoretical system.