Note 282 — Chapter XXII · Mr. Mill's Logic[264].

I have given elsewhere (see last chapter) reasons why I cannot assign to M. Comte's Philosophie Positive any great value as a contribution to the philosophy of science. In this judgment I conceive that I am supported by the best philosophers of our time. M. Comte owes, I think, much of the notice which has been given to him to his including, as Mr. Mill does, the science of society and of human nature in his scheme, and to his boldness in dealing with these. He appears to have been received with deference as a mathematician: but Sir John Herschel has shown that a supposed astronomical discovery of his is a mere assumption. I conceive that I have shown that his representation of the history of science is erroneous, both in its details and in its generalities. His distinction of the three stages of sciences, the theological, metaphysical, and positive, is not at all supported by the facts of scientific history. Real discoveries always involve what he calls metaphysics; and the doctrine of final causes in physiology, the main element of science which can properly be called theological, is retained at the end, as well as the beginning of the science, by all except a peculiar school.