Philosophy › Section L · Contemporary philosophy and social theory › Topic L.1
Enlightenment social theory
If reason and observation could explain the motion of the planets, could they also explain and repair society? This topic follows that Enlightenment hope from Kant and Condorcet through Comte's positivism to Du Bois's empirical sociology, and weighs the case for and against it.
In this topic
- Reason as a tool for a better society
- Two roads to knowledge
- Progress across generations
- Comte's law of three stages
- A science of society
- Worked example: why does opium cause sleep?
- Du Bois: evidence before theory
- Worked example: testing an armchair claim
- The case for Enlightenment social theory
- Objections from the start
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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