In Auguste Comte and Positivism, John Stuart Mill offers a careful, incisive examination of the ideas of Auguste Comte, the founder of positivism and one of the architects of modern sociology. Mill approaches Comte with both admiration and critical distance. He recognizes the power of Comte’s vision—his “law of the three stages,” his ambition to ground society in scientific principles, and his effort to create a unified system of knowledge. Yet Mill does not hesitate to question what he sees as ...