孔特的“三阶段法则”

除了斯宾塞的“综合哲学”体系，几乎在近代史上没有什么人的成绩可以与孔特的两本著作（《实证哲学》和《实证哲学体系》）比肩。另外，其中被称为“三阶段法则”的一种规律可以在每一个思想领域中都看到。孔特认为形而上学的时代应该结束了，因为它的很多观念是幼稚的，而且阻碍了我们对事物更为深刻的认识。

Herbert Spencer

I. Comte and Darwin

This was an undertaking which, in scope and patience, was second in modern times only to Spencer's "Synthetic Philosophy." Here the sciences were classified according to the decreasing simplicity and generality of their subject-matter: mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and sociology; each rested on the results of all the sciences before it; therefore sociology was the apex of the sciences, and the others had their reason for existence only in so far as they could provide illumination for the science of society. Science, in the sense of exact knowledge, had spread from one subject-matter to another in the order given; and it was natural that the complex phenomena of social life should be the last to yield to scientific method. In each field of thought the historian of ideas could observe a Law of Three Stages: at first the subject was conceived in the theological fashion, and all problems were explained by the will of some deity—as when the stars were gods, or the chariots of gods; later, the same subject reached the metaphysical stage, and was explained by metaphysical abstractions—as when the stars moved in circles because circles were the most perfect figure; finally the subject was reduced to positive science by precise observation, hypothesis, and experiment, and its phenomena were explained through the regularities of natural cause and effect. The "Will of God" yields to such airy entities as Plato's "Ideas" or Hegel's "Absolute Idea," and these in turn yield to the laws of science. Metaphysics is a stage of arrested development: the time had come, said Comte, to abandon these puerilities. Philosophy was not something different from science; it was the coördination of all the sciences with a view to the improvement of human life.

▍语言点

undertaking: n. 事业

second...only to: 仅次于

Synthetic Philosophy: 综合哲学

mathematics: n. 数学

astronomy: n. 天文学

physics: n. 物理学

chemistry: n. 化学

biology: n. 生物学

sociology: n. 社会学

illumination: n. 启示

deity: n. 神灵

chariot: n. 战车；马车

metaphysical: adj. 形而上学的

precise: adj. 精准的

hypothesis: n. 假设

experiment: n. 实验

regularity: n. 规律

puerility: n. 幼稚的思想

coördination: n. 整合

chariot (正确读音为：/ˈtʃæriət/)