Auguste Comte and J. S. Mill on Physical Causes: The Case of Joseph Fourier’s Analytical Theory of Heat (2019)
Andreea Eșanu (Author)
HOPOS
Volume: 9
Issue: 2
Pages: 275-295
Publication date: 2019
Language: English
As Larry Laudan pointed out in the 1970s, in a convincing attempt to revive Auguste Comte’s positive philosophy, one overlooked aspect of Comte’s nineteenth-century philosophy of science was his categorical rejection of causal notions and their explanatory role in physical science. For example, Comte was skeptical about Laplace’s interpretation of Newtonian mechanics and the expansion of Laplace’s model of particles and forces to electricity, magnetism, and heat. But Laudan himself was not very clear on how Comte’s overall skepticism about causation was modern rather than, say, naive. Much earlier, John Stuart Mill made the case that Comte was in fact confused about the notion of cause, which impeded Comte from distinguishing between “metaphysical” and “physical” causes and which stemmed from a narrow and uncritical attachment to Comte’s antimetaphysical program. This article is an attempt to argue against Mill that Comte was not naive: he envisioned a construction of physical theories that did not need to rely on causal notions. By stressing this point, I hope to make more transparent the sense in which Comte’s rejection of causation in physical science had a “modern ring about it.”
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Losee, John;
(2011)
Theories of Causality: From Antiquity to the Present
Article
Guillin, Vincent;
(2012)
Le penchant biologique de la sociologie comtienne: La question de l'égalité des sexes
Book
Braunstein, Jean-François;
(2009)
La philosophie de la médecine d'Auguste Comte: Vaches carnivores, Vierge Mère et morts vivants
Article
Corr, John;
(2014)
The Enlightenment Surfaces in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Scientific Thinking Attempts to Deliver Order and Progress
Article
Brown, Robert;
(1997)
Artificial experiments on society: Comte, G.C. Lewis and Mill
Article
Scharff, Robert C.;
(1989)
Positivism, philosophy of science, and self-understanding in Comte and Mill
Article
Scharff, Robert C.;
(1989)
Mill's misreading of Comte on “interior observation”
Book
Guillin, Vincent;
(2009)
Auguste Comte and John Stuart Mill on Sexual Equality: Historical, Methodological and Philosophical Issues
Article
Wilson, Fred;
(1991)
Mill and Comte on the method of introspection
Article
Robert, Olivier;
(2002)
La tentation comtienne de John Stuart Mill: une “disciple indiscipliné”
Article
Ducheyne, Steffen;
(2008)
J. S. Mill's Canons of Induction: From True Causes to Provisional Ones
Book
Snyder, Laura J.;
(2006)
Reforming Philosophy: A Victorian Debate on Science and Society
Article
Cobb, Aaron D.;
(2011)
History and Scientific Practice in the Construction of an Adequate Philosophy of Science: Revisiting a Whewell/Mill Debate
Article
Pfeifer, Jessica;
(2012)
Mill and Lewis on Laws, Experimentation, and Systematization
Book
Mill, John Stuart;
Comte, Auguste;
(1995)
The correspondence of John Stuart Mill and Auguste Comte. Translated from the French and edited by Haac, Oscar A.. With a foreword by Haac, Oscar A. and an introduction by Kremer-Marietti, Angèle
Article
Heyd, Thomas;
(1989)
Mill and Comte on psychology
Article
Lécuyer, Bernard-Pierre;
(1987)
The statistician's role in society: The institutional establishment of statistics in France
Article
Sybil Gertrude De Clark;
(2017)
Qualitative vs Quantitative Conceptions of Homogeneity in Nineteenth Century Dimensional Analysis
Article
Ross, Don;
Spurrett, David;
(2007)
Notions of Cause: Russell's Thesis Revisited
Article
P. D. Magnus;
(2015)
John Stuart Mill on Taxonomy and Natural Kinds
Be the first to comment!