Course of Positive Philosophy (1830)
by Auguste Comte
View of the Nature and Importance of the Positive Philosophy
A general statement of any system of philosophy may be either a sketch of a doctrine to be established, or a summary of a doctrine already established. If greater value belongs to the last, the first is still important, as characterizing from its origin the subject to be treated. In a case like the present, where the proposed study is vast and hitherto indeterminate, it is especially important that the field of research should be marked out with all possible accuracy. . . .
In order to understand the true value and character of the positive philosophy, we must take a brief general view of the progressive course of the human mind, regarded as a whole, for no conception can be understood otherwise than through its history.
From the study of the development of human intelligence, in all directions, and through all times, the discovery arises of a great fundamental law, to which it is necessarily subject, and which has a solid foundation of proof, both in the facts of our organization and in our historical experience. The law is this: that each of our leading conceptions -- each branch of our knowledge -- passes successively through three different theoretical conditions: the theological, or fictitious; the metaphysical, or abstract; and the scientific, or positive. In other words, the human mind, by its nature, employs in its progress three methods of philosophizing, the character of which is essentially different, and even radically opposed: namely, the theological method, the metaphysical, and the positive. Hence arise three philosophies, or general systems of conceptions on the aggregate of phenomena, each of which excludes the others. The first is the necessary point of departure of the human understanding, and the third is its fixed and definitive state. The second is merely a state of transition.
In the theological state, the human mind, seeking the essential nature of beings, the first and final causes (the origin and purpose) of all effects -- in short, absolute knowledge -- supposes all phenomena to be produced by the immediate action of supernatural beings.
In the metaphysical state, which is only a modification of the first, the mind supposes, instead of supernatural beings, abstract forces, veritable entities (that is, personified abstractions) inherent in all beings, and capable of producing all phenomena. What is called the explanation of phenomena is, in this stage, a mere reference of each to its proper entity.
In the final, the positive, state, the mind has given over the vain search after absolute notions, the origin and destination of the universe, and the causes of phenomena, and applies itself to the study of their laws -- that is, their invariable relations of succession and resemblance. Reasoning and observation, duly combined, are the means of this knowledge. What is now understood when we speak of an explanation of facts is simply the establishment of a connection between single phenomena and some general facts, the number of which continually diminishes with the progress of science.
The theological system arrived at the highest perfection of which it is capable when it substituted the providential action of a single Being for the varied operations of the numerous divinities that had been before imagined. In the same way, in the last stage of the metaphysical system, men substitute one great entity (Nature) as the cause of all phenomena, instead of the multitude of entities at first supposed. In the same way, again, the ultimate perfection of the positive system would be (if such perfection could be hoped for) to represent all phenomena as particular aspects of a single general fact -- such as gravitation, for instance.. . .
The progress of the individual mind is not only an illustration, but an indirect evidence of that of the general mind. The point of departure of the individual and of the race being the same, the phases of the mind of a man correspond to the epochs of the mind of the race. Now, each of us is aware, if he looks back upon his own history, that he was a theologian in his childhood, a metaphysician in his youth, and natural philosopher in his manhood. All men who are up to their age can verify this for themselves.
Besides the observation of facts, we have theoretical reasons in support of this law.
The most important of these reasons arises from the necessity that always exists for some theory to which to refer our facts, combined with the clear impossibility that, at the outset of human knowledge, men could have formed theories out of the observation of facts. All good intellects have repeated, since Bacon’s time, that there can be no real knowledge but that which is based on observed facts. This is incontestable, in our present advanced stage; but, if we look back to the primitive stage of human knowledge, we shall see that it must have been otherwise then. If it is true that every theory must be based upon observed facts, it is equally true that facts cannot be observed without the guidance of some theory. Without such guidance, our facts would be desultory and fruitless; we could not retain them: for the most part we could not even perceive them.
Thus, between the necessity of observing facts in order to form a theory, and having a theory in order to observe facts, the human mind would have been entangled in a vicious circle, but for the natural opening afforded by theological conceptions. This is the fundamental reason for the theological character of the primitive philosophy. This necessity is confirmed by the perfect suitability of the theological philosophy to the earliest researches of the human mind. It is remarkable that the most inaccessible questions -- those of the nature of beings and the origin and purpose of phenomena -- should be the first to occur in a primitive state, while those that are really within our reach are regarded as almost unworthy of serious study. The reason is evident enough: that experience alone can teach us the measure of our powers; and if men had not begun by an exaggerated estimate of what they can do, they would never have done all that they are capable of. Our organization requires this. At such a period there could have been no reception of a positive philosophy, whose function is to discover the laws of phenomena, and whose leading characteristic it is to regard as interdicted to human reason those sublime mysteries that theology explains, even to their minutest details, with the most attractive facility. It is just so under a practical view of the nature of the researches with which men first occupied themselves. Such inquiries offered the powerful charm of unlimited empire over the external world—a world destined wholly for our use, and involved in every way with our existence. The theological philosophy, presenting this view, administered exactly the stimulus necessary to incite the human mind to the irksome labor without which it could make no progress. We can now scarcely conceive of such a state of things, our reason having become sufficiently mature to enter upon laborious scientific researches without needing any such stimulus as wrought upon the imaginations of astrologers and alchemists.
. . . The human understanding, slow in its advance, could not step at once from the theological into the positive philosophy. The two are so radically opposed that an intermediate system of conceptions has been necessary to render the transition possible. It is only in doing this that metaphysical conceptions have any utility whatever. In contemplating phenomena, men substitute for supernatural direction a corresponding entity. This entity may have been supposed to be derived from the supernatural action; but it is more easily lost sight of, leaving attention free for the facts themselves, till, at length, metaphysical agents have ceased to be anything more than the abstract names of phenomena. It is not easy to say by what other process than this our minds could have passed from supernatural considerations to natural, from the theological system to the positive.
The law of human development being thus established, let us consider what is the proper nature of the positive philosophy.
As we have seen, the first characteristic of the positive philosophy is that it regards all phenomena as subjected to invariable natural laws. Our business is -- seeing how vain is any research into what are called causes, whether first or final -- to pursue an accurate discovery of these laws, with a view to reducing them to the smallest possible number. By speculating upon causes, we could solve no difficulty about origin and purpose. Our real business is to analyze accurately the circumstances of phenomena, and to connect them by the natural relations of succession and resemblance. The best illustration of this is in the case of the doctrine of gravitation. We say that the general phenomena of the universe are explained by it, because it connects under one head the whole immense variety of astronomical facts; exhibiting the constant tendency of atoms towards each other in direct proportion to their masses, and in inverse proportion to the squares of their distances; while the general fact itself is a mere extension of one that is perfectly familiar to us and that we therefore say that we know -- the weight of bodies on the surface of the earth. As to what weight and attraction are, we have nothing to do with that, for it is not a matter of knowledge at all. Theologians and metaphysicians may Imagine and refine about such questions, but positive philosophy rejects them. When any attempt has been made to explain them, it has ended only in saying that attraction is universal weight, and that weight is terrestrial attraction -- that is, that the two orders of phenomena are identical, which is the point from which the question set out. Again, M. Fourier, in his fine series of researches on heat, has given us all the most important and precise laws of the phenomena of heat, and many large and new truths, without once inquiring into its nature, as his predecessors had done when they disputed about calorific matter and the action of a universal ether. In treating his subject in the positive method, he finds inexhaustible material for all his activity of research, without betaking himself to insoluble questions.
Before ascertaining the stage that the positive philosophy has reached, we must bear in mind that the different kinds of our knowledge have passed through the three stages of progress at different rates, and have not therefore arrived at the same time. The rate of advance depends on the nature of the knowledge in question so distinctly that, as we shall see hereafter, this consideration constitutes an accessory to the fundamental law of progress. Any kind of knowledge reaches the positive stage early in proportion to its generality, simplicity, and independence of other departments. Astronomical science, which is above all made up of facts that are general, simple, and independent of other sciences, arrived first; then terrestrial physics; then chemistry; and, at length, physiology.
It is difficult to assign any precise date to this revolution in science. It may be said, like everything else, to have been always going on, especially since the labors of Aristotle and the school of Alexandria, and then from the introduction of natural science into the West of Europe by the Arabs. But, if we must fix upon some marked period, to serve as a rallying point, it must be that about two centuries ago -- when the human mind was astir under the precepts of Bacon, the conceptions of Descartes, and the discoveries of Galileo. Then it was that the spirit of the positive philosophy rose up in opposition to that of the superstitious and scholastic systems that had hitherto obscured the true character of all science. Since that date, the progress of the positive philosophy and the decline of the other two have been so marked that no rational mind now doubts that the revolution is destined to go on to its completion -- every branch of knowledge being sooner or later brought within the operation of positive philosophy. This is not yet the case. Some are still lying outside, and not till they are brought in will the positive philosophy posses that character of universality that is necessary to its definitive constitution.
. . . It would be absurd to pretend to offer this new science at once in a complete state. Others, less new, are in very unequal conditions of forwardness. But the same character of positivity that is impressed on all the others will be shown to belong to this. This once done, the philosophical system of the moderns will be in fact complete, as there will then be no phenomenon that does not naturally enter into some one of the five great categories. All our fundamental conceptions having become homogeneous, the positive state will be fully established. It can never again change its character, though it will be forever in course of development by additions of new knowledge. Having acquired the character of universality which has hitherto been the only advantage resting with the two preceding systems, it will supersede them by its natural superiority, and leave to them only a historical existence.
. . . The purpose of this work is not to give an account of the natural sciences. Besides that it would be endless, and that it would require a scientific preparation such as no one man possesses, it would be apart from our object, which is to go through a course of not positive science but positive philosophy. We have only to consider each fundamental science in its relation to the whole positive system, and to the spirit which characterizes it; that is, with regard to its methods and its chief results.
The two aims, though distinct, are inseparable; for, on the one hand, there can be no positive philosophy without a basis of social science, without which it could not be all-comprehensive; and, on the other hand, we could not pursue social science without having been prepared by the study of phenomena less complicated than those of society, and furnished with a knowledge of laws and anterior facts that have a bearing upon social science. Though the fundamental sciences are not all equally interesting to ordinary minds, there is no one of them that can be neglected in an inquiry like the present; and, in the eye of philosophy, all are of equal value to human welfare. Even those that appear the least interesting have their own value, either on account of the perfection of their methods, or as being the necessary basis of all the others.
. . . The general spirit of a course of positive philosophy having been thus set forth, we must now glance at the chief advantages that may be derived, on behalf of human progression, from its study. Of these advantages, four may be especially pointed out.
1. The study of the positive philosophy affords the only rational means of exhibiting the logical laws of the human mind, which have hitherto been sought by unfit methods. To explain what is meant by this, we may refer to a saying of M. de Blainville, in his work on comparative anatomy, that every active, and especially every living, being may be regarded under two relations -- the static and the dynamic; that is, under conditions or in action. It is clear that all considerations range themselves under the one or the other of these heads. Let us apply this classification to the intellectual functions.
If we regard these functions under their static aspect -- that is, if we consider the conditions under which they exist -- we must determine the organic circumstances of the case, which inquiry involves it with anatomy and physiology. If we look at the dynamic aspect, we have to study simply the exercise and results of the intellectual powers of the human race, which is neither more nor less than the general object of the positive philosophy. In short, looking at all scientific theories as so many great logical facts, it is only by the thorough observation of these facts that we can arrive at the knowledge of logical laws. These being the only means of knowledge of intellectual phenomena, the illusory psychology, which is the last phase of theology, is excluded. It pretends to accomplish the discovery of the laws of the human mind by contemplating it in itself; that is, by separating it from causes and effects. Such an attempt, made in defiance of the physiological study of our intellectual organs, and of the observation of rational methods of procedure, cannot succeed at this time of day.
The positive philosophy, which has been rising since the time of Bacon, has now secured such a preponderance that the metaphysicians themselves profess to ground their pretended science on an observation of facts. They talk of external and internal facts, and say that their business is with the latter. This is much like saying that vision is explained by luminous objects’ painting their images upon the retina. To this the physiologists reply that another eye would be needed to see the image. In the same manner, the mind may observe all phenomena but its own. It may be said that a man’s intellect may observe his passions, the seat of the reason being somewhat apart from that of the emotions in the brain; but there can be nothing like scientific observation of the passions, except from without, as the stir of the emotions disturbs the observing faculties more or less. It is yet more our of the question to make an intellectual observation of intellectual processes. The observing and observed organ are here the same, and its action cannot be pure and natural. In order to observe, your intellect must pause from activity; yet it is this very activity that you want to observe. If you cannot effect the pause, you cannot observe; if you do effect it, there is nothing to observe. The results of such a method are in proportion to its absurdity. After two thousand years of psychological pursuit, no one proposition is established to the satisfaction of its followers. They are divided, to this day, into a multitude of schools, still disputing about the very elements of their doctrine. This interior observation gives birth to almost as many theories as there are observers. We ask in vain for any one discovery, great or small, that has been made under this method. The psychologists have done some good in keeping up the activity of our understandings, when there was no better work for our faculties to do; and they may have added something to our stock of knowledge. If they have done so, it is by practicing the positive method by observing the progress of the human mind in the light of science; that is, by ceasing, for the moment, to be psychologists.
The view just given in relation to logical science becomes yet more striking when we consider the logical art.
The positive method can be judged of only in action. It cannot be looked at by itself, apart from the work on which it is employed. At all events, such a contemplation would be only a dead study, which could produce nothing in the mind that loses time upon it. We may talk forever about the method, and state it in terms very wisely, without knowing half so much about it as the man who has once put it in practice upon a single particular of actual research, even without any philosophical intention. Thus it is that psychologists, by dint of reading the precepts of Bacon and the discourses of Descartes, have mistaken their own dreams for science.
Without saying whether it will ever be possible to establish a priori a true method of investigation, independent of a philosophical study of the sciences, it is clear that the thing has never been done yet, and that we are not capable of doing it now. We cannot as yet explain the great logical procedures, apart from their applications. If we ever do, it will remain as necessary then as now to form good intellectual habits by studying the regular application of the scientific methods which we shall have attained.
This, then, is the first great result of the positive philosophy -- the manifestation by experiment of the laws that rule the intellect in the investigation of truth and, as a consequence, the knowledge of the general rules suitable for that object.
2. The second effect of the positive philosophy, an effect not less important and far more urgently wanted, will be to regenerate education.
The best minds are agreed that our European education, still essentially theological, metaphysical, and literary, must be superseded by a positive training, conformable to our time and needs. Even the governments of our day have shared, where they have not originated, the attempts to establish positive instruction; and this is a striking indication of the prevalent sense of what is wanted. While encouraging such endeavors to the utmost, we must not, however, conceal from ourselves that everything yet done is inadequate to the object. The present exclusive specialty of our pursuits, and the consequent isolation of the sciences, spoil our teaching. If any student desires to form an idea of natural philosophy as a whole, he is compelled to go through each department as it is now taught, as if he were to be only an astronomer, or only a chemist; so that, be his intellect what it may, his training must remain very imperfect. And yet his object requires that he should obtain general positive conceptions of all the classes of natural phenomena. It is such an aggregate of conceptions, whether on a great or on a small scale, which must henceforth be the permanent basis of all human combinations. It will constitute the mind of future generations. In order for this regeneration of our intellectual system, it is necessary that the sciences, considered as branches from one trunk, should yield us, as a whole, their chief methods and their most important results. The specialities of science can be pursued by those whose vocation lies in that direction. They are indispensable, and they are not likely to be neglected; but they can never of themselves renovate our system of education, and, to be of their full use, they must rest upon the basis of that general instruction that is a direct result of the positive philosophy.
3. The same special study of scientific generalities must also aid the progress of the respective positive sciences: and this constitutes our third head of advantages.
The divisions that we establish between the sciences are, though not arbitrary, essentially artificial. The subject of our researches is one: we divide it for our convenience, in order to deal the more easily with its difficulties But it sometimes happens -- and especially with the most important doctrines of each science that we need what we cannot obtain under the present isolation of the sciences -- a combination of several special points of view; and for want of this, very important problems wait for their solution much longer than they otherwise need do. To go back into the past for an example: Descartes’s grand conception with regard to analytical geometry is a discovery that has changed the whole aspect of mathematical science and yielded the germ of all future progress; and it issued from the union of two sciences that had always before been separately regarded and pursued. The case of pending questions is yet more impressive; as, for instance, in chemistry, the doctrine of definite proportions. Without entering upon the discussion of the fundamental principle of this theory, we may say with assurance that, in order to determine it -- in order to determine whether it is a law of nature that atoms should necessarily combine in fixed numbers it will be indispensable that the chemical point of view should be united with the physiological. The failure of the theory with regard to organic bodies indicates that the cause of this immense exception must be investigated; and such an inquiry belongs as much to physiology as to chemistry. Again, it is as yet undecided whether azote is a simple or a compound body. It was concluded by almost all chemists that azote is a simple body; the illustrious Berzelius hesitated, on purely chemical considerations; but he was also influenced by the physiological observation that animals that receive no azote in their food have as much of it in their tissues as carnivorous animals. From this we see how physiology must unite with chemistry to inform us whether azote is simple or compound, and to institute a new series of researches upon the relation between the composition of living bodies and their mode of alimentation.
Such is the advantage which, in the third place, we shall owe to positive philosophy -- the elucidation of the respective sciences by their combination. In the fourth place:
4. The positive philosophy offers the only solid basis for that social reorganization that must succeed the critical condition in which the most civilized nations are now living.
It cannot be necessary to prove to anybody who reads this work that ideas govern the world, or throw it into chaos -- in other words, that all social mechanism rests upon opinions. The great political and moral crisis that societies are now undergoing is shown by a rigid analysis to arise out of intellectual anarchy. While stability in fundamental maxims is the first condition of genuine social order, we are suffering under an utter disagreement that may be called universal. Till a certain number of general ideas can be acknowledged as a rallying point of social doctrine, the nations will remain in a revolutionary state, whatever palliatives may be devised; and their institutions can be only provisional. But whenever the necessary agreement on first principles can be obtained, appropriate institutions will issue from them, without shock or resistance; for the causes of disorder will have been arrested by the mere fact of the agreement. It is in this direction that those must look who desire a natural and regular, a normal, state of society.
Now, the existing disorder is abundantly accounted for by the existence, all at once, of three incompatible philosophies, -- the theological, the metaphysical, and the positive. Any one of these might alone secure some sort of social order; but while the three coexist, it is impossible for us to understand one another upon any essential point whatever. If this is true, we have only to ascertain which of the philosophies must, in the nature of things, prevail; and, this ascertained, every man, whatever may have been his former views, cannot but concur in its triumph. The problem once recognized cannot remain long unsolved; for all considerations whatever point to the a positive philosophy as the one destined to prevail. It alone has been advancing during a course of centuries, throughout which the others have been declining. The fact is incontestable. Some may deplore it, but none can destroy it, nor therefore neglect it but under penalty of being betrayed by illusory speculations. This general revolution of the human mind is nearly accomplished. We have only to complete the positive philosophy by bringing social phenomena within its comprehension, and afterwards consolidating the whole into one body of homogeneous doctrine. The marked preference that almost all minds, c from the highest to the commonest, accord to positive knowledge over t vague and mystical conceptions is a pledge of what the reception of F this philosophy will be when it has acquired the only quality that it r now wants -- a character of due generality. When it has become complete, its supremacy will take place spontaneously, and will re-establish order throughout society. There is, at present, no conflict but between the theological and the metaphysical philosophies. They are contending for the task of reorganizing society; but it is a work too mighty for either of them. The positive philosophy has hitherto intervened only to examine both, and both are abundantly discredited by the process. It is time now to be doing something more effective, without wasting our forces in needless controversy. It is time to complete the vast intellectual operation begun by Bacon, Descartes, and Galileo, by constructing the system of general ideas that must henceforth prevail among the human race. This is the way to put an end to the revolutionary crisis that is tormenting the civilized nations of the world.
Leaving these four points of advantage, we must attend to one precautionary reflection.
Because it is proposed to consolidate the whole of our acquired knowledge into one body of homogeneous doctrine, it must not be supposed that we are going to study this vast variety as proceeding from a single principle, and as subjected to a single law. There is something so chimerical in attempts at universal explanation by a single law that it may be as well to secure this work at once from any imputation of the kind, though its development will show how undeserved such an imputation would be. Our intellectual resources are too narrow, and the universe is too complex, to leave any hope that it will ever be within our power to carry scientific perfection to its last degree of simplicity. Moreover, it appears as if the value of such an attainment, supposing it possible, were greatly overrated. The only way, for instance, in which we could achieve the business, would be by connecting all natural phenomena with the most general law we know -- which is that of gravitation, by which astronomical phenomena are already connected with a portion of terrestrial physics. Laplace has indicated that chemical phenomena may be regarded as simple atomic effects of the Newtonian attraction, modified by the form and mutual position of the atoms. But supposing this view provable (which it cannot be while we are without data about the constitution of bodies), the difficulty of its application would doubtless be found so great that we must still maintain the existing division between astronomy and chemistry, with the difference that we now regard as natural that division that we should then call artificial. Laplace himself presented his idea only as a philosophic device, incapable of exercising any useful influence over the progress of chemical science. Moreover, supposing this insuperable difficulty overcome, we should be no nearer to scientific unity, since we then should still have to connect the whole of physiological phenomena with the same law, which certainly would not be the least difficult part of the enterprise. Yet, all things considered, the hypothesis we have glanced at would be the most favorable to the desired unity.
The consideration of all phenomena as referable to a single origin is by no means necessary to the systematic formation of science, any more than to the realization of the great and happy consequences that we anticipate from the positive philosophy. The only necessary unity is that of method, which is already in great part established. As for the doctrine, it need not be one; it is enough that it should be homogeneous. It is, then, under the double aspect of unity of method and homogeneousness of doctrine that we shall consider the different classes of positive theories in this work. While pursuing the philosophical aim of all science, the lessening of the number of general laws requisite for the explanation of natural phenomena, we shall regard as presumptuous every attempt, in all future time, to reduce them rigorously to one.
Having thus endeavored to determine the spirit and influence of the positive philosophy and to mark the goal of our labors, we have now to proceed to the exposition of the system -- that is, to the determination of the universal, or encyclopedic, order, which must regulate the different classes of natural phenomena, and consequently the corresponding positive sciences.
[Source: Gertrud Lenzer, ed., Auguste Comte and Positivism: The Essential Writings (New York: Harper, 1975). pp. 71-86.]
Cited from: http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/comte_cpp.html
February 26, 2008 12:43 AM
February 26, 2008 12:43 AM
3 comments:
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
The Delhi Commission for Women main aim is to protect women from all kind of harassment and it has worked extensively in this aspect over the years till date: -
The harassment of women ranging from physical beatings, emotional torture, mental abuse, sexual abuse, threat of violence, denial of basic necessity such as food and maintenance or where there are children, there is the additional blackmail that custody of the children will be denied to her if she does not fall in line, every kind of help and support, its provided to women who approach the Commission. It is no solace to be told that women can go to court for her rights. As going to Court itself is a long drawn process and torture, and very extensive often the women are simply abandoned and deserted with no means of sustenance.
Another very common form of violence is she taking of a second wife. It makes no difference that bigamy is crime, many men continue to believe that they have a right to home extra martial affairs. Statistics indicate that women in this society do not own property or she matrimonial home, which belongs either to she husband or to his family members. The man is therefore literally the lord and master of the home and hence considers the women to be just a worker in the house mostly and more prove to violence.
However, there are also situations in which people have laid together in what has come to be described as common law manages for several years and such women too face violence within the relationship.
It is clear that any law on domestic violence, which seeks to present it, must address all these problems and very fundamentally, must protect the right to reside in the “Shared household.” The term ”shared household” is preferred over “matrimonial home”. Since the relationships protected are beyond matrimonial ones. It is the fact of being together in a common space, the intimate nature of the relationship, the privacy of the home and the unequal relations of power that provide the opportunity for the abuse of women.
Factors that determine the success of a domestic violence law.
It is therefore be clear to us that the success of any law on domestic violence depends on the following factors: -
A declaration of basic intent of the law, namely, the object of preventing domestic violence;
A clear and unambiguous statement of the right to be tree from domestic violence and the recognition of domestic violence as a violation of the human rights of the women;
The definition of domestic violence, which captures women’s expensive of abuse with some degree of precision;
The definition of the shared household so that rights can be protected within that household;
The relief that can be given to protect the women from violence;
The infrastructure available to victims of violence that can make the remedy accessible;
Clarity and simplicity of Court procedures;
Monitoring of the functions of the law, as it serving its intended purpose;
Providing a coordinated respond to domestic violence by recognizing the role of other agencies such as NGO’s the medical profession, shelter homes and the police in assisting the prevention of domestic violence.
The Government of India passed a Bill on 8th March, 2002 on Domestic Violence. The Government of India Bill defines “Domestic Violence” as follows: -
for the purpose of this Act, any conduct of the respondent stall constitute domestic violence if he,
habitually assault or makes the life of the aggrieved person miserable by cruelty of conduct even if such a conduct does not amount to physical ill-treatment,
faces the aggrieved person to bad an immoral life or
otherwise injuries or harms the aggrieved person.
Nothing contained in clause (c) of the sub-section (1) shall amount to domestic violence if the pursuit of course of conduct by the respondent was reasonable of his own protection or for the protection of his or another’s property.
The United Nation framework for model legislation on domestic violence states. “All acts of gender-based physical and Psychological abuse by a family member against women in the family, ranging from simple assault to aggravated physical battery, kidnapping, threats, intimidation, coercion, stalking, humiliating verbal use, forcible on unlawful entry, arson, destruction of property, sexual violence, marital rape, dowry or related violence, female genital mutilation, violence, related to exploitation through prostitution, violence against household workers and attempts to commit such acts shall be termed ”Domestic Violence.”
Though the Govt. of India Bill has been criticized by different organization in India. They say that Govt. of India bill fails to define domestic violence and washes itself off the responsibility of defining it and leaves it to judges to decide. This leaves too much to the mercy of the judge and too little to the rights of the person aggrieved. The definition does not use the language of rights and uses instead the outdated concept of conduct, making ”The life of an aggrieved person miserable.” It does not even define cruelty. There is in the Govt. of India Bill, a persistent denial to recognize that domestic violence exists and the need to articulate its various forms. This definition will defeat the very purpose of the law and will render its meaning less for women, if not make their position worse.
We, in the women’s movement have a long battle ahead of us getting the government to politically commit itself to pass a law on domestic violence is a victory no doubt but an incomplete one.
In a democratic country citizens have a right to participate in the forming of legislation.
We must insist that: -
“Domestic Violence” is defined in accordance with the UN framework for model legislation on domestic violence.
The right to reside in the shared household is included.
The law should enable judges to pass orders of residence, restraining dispossession, restoring possession.
Law should enable grant to monetary relief, custody and compensation.
There should be no procession for mandating counselling for the women.
Protection officers are appointed through an open process of inviting applications from all qualified persons through advertisements in a transparent manner.
A suspended warrant of arrest is attached to the protection order or in the alternation. Violation of a protection order is an offence which 15 cognizable and non-bail able.
The government commits substantial funds for the appointment of protection officers and for the implementation of the Act.
Widest possible publicity of the law is given.
The government provide for training of the law enforcement machinery.
The coordination for the prevention of domestic violence is appointed.
Legal aid to victims of domestic violence should be readily available.
The Delhi Commission for Women also discussed the bill extensively and few suggestions have been given by the lawyers and members of the Commission and justified there suggestions which are being sent in regard of proposed Bill for Domestic Violence. It is also being stated that suggestions has been incorporated according to section of proposed by bill which are as follow: -
section 2 (d) of this proposed Bill deals with definition of monetary relief. In this regard, it is being suggested that monetary relief to aggrieved person should be linked with the status of accused.
Otherwise, this will give the scope to accused to hurt the aggrieved person again.
section 4 (1) of this proposed Bill deals with Meaning of Domestic Violence. This section of proposed Bill covers only that act which is done by male members.
In this regard, it is being suggested that this definition does not cover that act which is done by females. There should be mentioned a word which can cover the act which is done by both males and females.
For example, in some cases the violence is caused by sister-in-law/mother-in-law, etc. In this situation this word ‘He’ which is mentioned in definition of proposed Bill will remain in sufficient.
this proposed suggestion in regard of section 4, suggested to amend suitably because the existing provision of proposed Bill provides some scope of safeguard to accused Person therefore it is being suggested to amend this provision suitably.
section 5 of the proposed Bill, deals with the appointment of Protection Officer. In this regard, it is being proposed that the role and the process of appointment of Protection Officer should be transparent and well defined so that appropriate/ qualified person may be appointed.
section 12 of the proposed Bill, deals with the assistance of welfare expert. In this regard, it is being proposed, a coordinator for prevention of domestic violence should be appointed with in society with the help of voluntary organization, which works for family related issues.
This will help to aggrieved person to come out from society and encouraged to file on application from weaker section of society.
this proposed Bill does not cover violence against domestic servants. Thus, this proposed suggestion will entrance the coverance of the Bill and more aggrieved persons of society would be cover by this amendment.
this is in regard of section 11 of proposed Bill, which deals with counselling. In this regard, it is being proposed that mandatory word may be dated and nature of counselling for victim should be Psychological. Therefore, both parties can lead their life smoothly and peacefully.
section 12 of proposed Bill deals with assistance of welfare expert. In this regard, it is being suggested that the guidelines for the welfare expert should be well defined so that he/she can provide his/her service in right direction.
this suggestion also being made that the right of aggrieved person to live in her matrimonial home should be unconditional and clearly brought out.
this is also justified because a aggrieved person who faces violence does not want to go back because of the violence. If a woman restored to her matrimonial home, there is no guarantee for further victimization. Thus, there should be mandatory law directly a woman (victim) to be restored to matrimonial home.
in this proposed Bill, it is not specified that where should an application be made by an aggrieved person. Thus, the jurisdiction of the complainant should be made clear.
Cieted from
http://dcw.delhigovt.nic.in/Domestic%20Violance.htm
Dialectical Materialism (A. Spirkin)
Philosophy as Methodology
The general concept of methodology. The world presents us with a picture of an infinite diversity of properties, connections and events. This kaleidoscope of impressions must be permeated by an organising principle, a certain method, that is to say, by certain regulative techniques and means of the practical and theoretical mastering of reality. Practical and theoretical activities follow different methods. The former indicate the ways of doing things and corresponding human skills that have been historically formed and socially established in the instruments of labour. The latter characterise the modes of activity of the mind resulting in the finding truth and the correct, rational solution of problems.
A methodology is a system of principles and general ways of organising and structuring theoretical and practical activity, and also the theory of this system. Genetically methods go back far into the past, when our distant ancestors were acquiring, generalising and handing down to new generations their skills and means of influencing nature, the forms of organising labour and communication. As philosophy emerged, methodology became a special target of cognition and could be defined as a system of socially approved rules and standards of intellectual and practical activity. These rules and standards had to be aligned with the objective logic of events, with the properties and laws of phenomena. The problems of accumulating and transmitting experience called for a certain formalisation of the principles and precepts, the techniques and operations involved in activity itself. For example, in ancient Egypt geometry emerged in the form of methodologically significant precepts concerning the measuring procedure for the division of land. An important role in this process was played by training for labour operations, their sequence, and the choice of the most effective ways of doing things.
With the development of production, technology, art, and the elements of science and culture, methodology becomes the target of theoretical thought, whose specific form is the Philosophical comprehension of the principles of organisation and regulation of cognitive activity, its conditions, structure and content. For example, in the work of Heraclitus "knowledge of many things" is contrasted to reason, the latter being a Particularly reliable means of understanding the dialectics of the universe--the universal Logos--and to be distinguished from the diversity of the "opinions" and legends acquired by unreliable means. The rules of reasoning, of effective proof, the role of language as a means of cognition were the subject of special inquiry in the philosophy of the Greek Sophists (Protagoras and others). Socrates, Plato and Aristotle occupy a special place in discussion of the problems of methodology. Socrates, for example, gave priority to the dialogical nature of thinking as the joint attainment of truth through collation of different notions and concepts, their comparison, analysis, definition and so on. He regarded his theory of Proceeding by means of induction from vague notions to clearly defined general concepts as a method of Perfecting the art of living, of achieving virtue; logical operations were subordinated to ethical aims. According to Socrates, the acquisition of true knowledge should serve action with a moral purpose. The purpose should be determined by means of appropriately organised work of the intellect. This Socratic principle had a deep influence on various trends in the evolution of methodology, especially on the teaching of Plato, who developed a dialectic of concepts and categories the purpose of which was to find the principle in everything. In order to achieve this, our thoughts should move according to the objective logic of the objects under consideration as the embodiments of incorporeal essences. The world of these essences, or ideas, was also regarded as a realm of beauty, of the good which the soul could attain through strenuous effort.
Assuming like Plato that the object of true knowledge was the universal, Aristotle taught that this universal was to be discovered by investigating individual, empirically given things. The methodology of such research is set forth in Aristotle's logic, which closely analyses the principles for defining a term or constructing a statement, the rules of inference and proof, the role of induction and deduction in attaining truth, and so on. Aristotle's aesthetics expounds the principles of creativity and analysis in works of art. He also gives us a methodologically important elaboration of the theory of categories as the organising forms of cognition and their dialectics.
Until modern times, however, the problems of methodology had no independent place in the system of knowledge and arose only in the context of logical and natural philosophical arguments. Scientific progress is not limited to the accumulation of knowledge. It is also a process of evolving new means of seeking knowledge. The rapid advance of natural science called for radical changes in methodology. This need was reflected in new principles of methodology and corresponding philosophical ideas, both rationalistic and empirical, directed against scholasticism. The principles of mechanics marked a breakthrough in methodology. According to Galileo, scientific knowledge, by uniting the inductive and deductive methods, should be based on planned, accurate mental and practical experiment.
In Descartes the problem of methodology is central. Methodology is required to establish on what basis and by what methods new knowledge may be obtained. Descartes worked out the rules of the rationalistic method, the first rule being the demand that only propositions that are clearly and distinctly comprehensible may be accepted as true. The first principles are axiomatic knowledge, that is, ideas perceived intuitively by reason, without any proof. From these immediately perceived propositions new knowledge is deduced by means of deductive proof. This assumes the breaking down of complex problems into more specific and comprehensible problems and a strictly logical advance from the known to the unknown.
Another line in methodology was represented at this time by English empiricism, which sought to devise modes of thought that would help to build a strictly experimental science guided by proofs of scientific truths arrived at through induction.
The limitations of both trends were revealed by German classical philosophy, which produced a searching analysis of the conditions of cognition, its forms and organising principles. In contrast to mechanistic methodology, which metaphysically interpreted the ways and means of cognition, classical German Philosophy developed a dialectical methodology in idealistic forms.
Kant produced a critical analysis of the structure and types of man's cognitive abilities and defined the constructive and regulative principles of cognition and the relationship between its form and content. Whereas Descartes' initial methodological principle was to subject everything to doubt in order to obtain sound and unquestionably authentic knowledge and Hume had doubted the very fact of the existence of the world, for Kant a critical attitude to present knowledge was the methodological basis for overcoming dogmatic and metaphysical views of the world. His work was aimed against both dogmatism and scepticism and sought to defend the principle of the authenticity and general significance of knowledge. Dualism and apriorism however, prevented consistent realisation of this principle.
In Kant's analysis of the process of cognition there were elements of dialectics. These were developed on a higher plane by Hegel, whose philosophy took the form of a universal method of cognition and of intellectual activity in general. The categories and laws of dialectics evolved by Hegel provided a system of thought that made it possible to investigate the interconnection and contradictions between being and thinking, the dialectics of the development of human culture, from a new standpoint based on the principle of historicism Foremost in Hegel's methodology is the principle of ascent from the abstract to the concrete, that is, from the general and limited forms of sensuality and rational judgements to analytical and highly meaningful concepts, and thence to a system of concepts revealing the object to the full extent of its essential and, in this sense, concrete characteristics.
The achievements of the methodologies of Preceding periods were generalised and reviewed on a consistently materialist basis in Marxist Philosophy, enriched by the latest advances in science and social practice The dialectical method was radically revised. From being a method and analysis of forms of knowledge in themselves, regardless of reality and the objective laws of its development, it became a method of the fullest and most meaningful investigation of this development, an instrument not only of theoretical cognition but also of revolutionary transformation of reality. In the methodology of Marxism spontaneously dialectical methods of thought, which had stimulated progress in the natural and social sciences, acquired their theoretical substantiation. This methodology clarifies the nature of the relationship between theoretical and empirical knowledge, and also the role of practice in organising both forms of cognition.
The relationship between theory and method. Whereas theory is the result of a process of cognition that reproduces a certain fragment of existence, methodology is a way of obtaining and building up such knowledge. Theory characterises knowledge itself, its structure, content and the degree to which it corresponds to the object; method characterises the activity involved in acquiring knowledge. It characterises the conditions for obtaining true knowledge. In practice, the distinction between theory and method may sometimes be functional: having taken shape as a theoretical result of past inquiry, method acts as the point of departure and condition for further investigation. Thus the law of the conservation of matter and energy as a theoretical principle expressing the fundamental condition for the existence of the world is simultaneously a methodological requirement for the investigation of any phenomenon. The methodological principle of the determinist explanation of the world is the organising principle of the corresponding physical, biological and social theories. After being tested by social practice, these theories in their turn may perform a methodological function, that is, serve as a guiding principle in further research.
The methodology of Marxism has a universal character and may be concretised when applied to various spheres of human activity according to their conditions and aims. Whereas the concept of methodology was at one time mainly concerned with cognitive activity (with the result that the methodology of science was better developed), the new approach to methodology established by Marxism has made it possible to expand its sphere of application and provide a philosophical substantiation for the ways and means of organising the whole gamut of forms of human activity. The specific nature of these forms calls for methods corresponding to the objects that are studied and transformed. In the sphere of art, for example, such a method is the realistic method, portraying reality with all its contradictions and perspectives.
The effectiveness of a method is judged mainly by its correspondence to the object concerned. In what way does the truth of a theory differ from that of a method? Theory relates only to its object and is characterised by the degree to which it truly reproduces that object. But a method may be true—in the sense of effective--in one cognitive situation, while leading to false conclusions in another. The methods of physics are applicable to physical reality, including those cases when it is part of biological objects. If there is a diversity of methods there inevitably arises the problem of choosing one and assessing it as a possible way of solving specific theoretical and practical problems This gives methodology an axiological (value) aspect and prompts us to assess methods from the standpoint of both truth and effectiveness. Though methods may differ in quality they all have a common basis in the integral dialectical-materialist methodology.
Hierarchy of methods. It is important to sort out the relationship between Philosophical methodology and the complex hierarchy of general scientific and specific ways and techniques of activity in material and intellectual production organised at various levels. At the philosophical level methodology actually functions not in the form of a rigid system of standards, "prescriptions" and techniques--such an interpretation would inevitably lead to dogmatism--but as a general system of assumptions and guideline of human activity, world-view being most vital of them. Dialectical and historical materialism is such a general system. World-view provides the assumption and the basis of methodology. Philosophy cannot, for example, give physics specific methods for studying quantum mechanics. But it is concerned with the general approach to discovery of truth in physics. It deals not with the "tactics" of the research process, but with the strategy in the battle for truth.
One must first master Universal Philosophical principles, and then the particulars of the various levels are more easily assimilated. If we go about things in the opposite order we cannot Properly master either the one or the other. Philosophical methods "work" in science not directly but mediated by other more specific methods. For example, the principle of historicism as a universal method evolved by philosophy has in biology taken the form of evolution theory—the methodological basis of the modern biological disciplines, and in astronomy this same principle has generated a whole set of cosmogonic hypotheses. In Social research dialectical materialism combined with historical materialism performs the function of a method for all the social sciences Methods that have a general scientific character, such as comparison, analysis and synthesis, abstraction, idealisation generalisation, ascent from the abstract to the concrete, modelling, formalisation, induction and deduction, also have to be concretised in each separate science.
In science, methodology often decides the fate of a research project. Different approaches may lead to opposite conclusions being drawn from one and the same factual material. Describing the role of correct method in scientific cognition, philosophers have compared it to a torch illuminating the road for the traveller in darkness. Even a lame man who chooses the right road will arrive ahead of the aimless wanderer. It goes without saying that method in itself cannot guarantee success in research. Not only a good method but skill in applying it are required.
A characteristic feature of the development of philosophical thought in the 20th century is the rapid growth of methodological research and the increase of its specific share in the general system of scientific knowledge. This is due to the conversion of science into a direct productive force, to the rapid development of science as a special form of intellectual production and to the differential and integrative processes occurring in it, which has led to the specific changes in the classical disciplines and the appearance of many new ones. The development and perfecting of methods is a crucial element in all scientific progress. Contemporary society is confronted with global problems whose solution demands large-scale programmes that can be carried out only through the collaboration of many sciences, programmes designed to cope with the problems of ecology, demography, urbanisation, space exploration, and so on.
The need thus arises not only to pool the efforts of specialists in various fields, but also to combine scientific data in situations where there is in principle no complete or definite information about the object as a whole, as a system. The deepening of the interconnection of the sciences leads to the results, models and methods of some sciences being increasingly widely used by others that are relatively less developed in the methodological sense and more complex in their object of study, for example, the application of physical and chemical methods in biology, psychology, and medicine. This gives rise to the problem of methods of inter-disciplinary research and has led to the evolution of methods that can ensure effective interaction and synthesis of the methods of various sciences and reveal research techniques, a logical apparatus and scientific language for unifying separate concepts and trends and giving them general scientific status. One may cite, for example, the principles of cybernetics with its categories of control, information, feedback, etc.; systems analysis as the further creative development of the principles and categories of dialectics; or the concept of the noosphere of Academician V. I. Vernadsky, which has been developed in the idea of a planetary energo-information field.
Modern science is becoming more abstract and lends itself more easily to mathematical methods of research. Particularly relevant are the problems of interpreting the results of research performed with an extensive use of formalisation techniques. This has led to the special elaboration of methods interpretation and modelling.
There are several classifications of methodological knowledge. One of the most popular is the division of methodology into substantive and formal methodology. The former includes such problems as the structure of scientific knowledge in general and scientific theory in particular, the laws of the generation, functioning and mutation of scientific theories, the conceptual framework of science and its separate disciplines, the definition of the explanatory patterns accepted in science, the structure and Operational composition of the methods of science, the conditions and criteria of scientificalness
The formal aspects ,of methodology are related to analysis of the language of science, the formal structure of scientific explanation, description and analysis of formal and formalised methods of research, particularly the methods of constructing scientific theories and conditions of their logical truth, the typology of systems of knowledge, and so on. It was the elaboration of this set of problems that raised the question of the logical structure of scientific knowledge and the development of a methodology of science as an independent field of knowledge. This field embraces the whole diversity of methodological and methodic principles and techniques, operations and forms of constructing scientific knowledge, Its highest and definitive level is the philosophical methodology, whose guiding principles organise methodological work both at the general scientific level (including the logico-methodological apparatus applicable to many disciplines) and at the specialised scientific level, Where special methods of research and derivative specific methodical systems are devised and applied. Method is concretised methodology. Through the method of the concrete science it reaches the research desk. The concrete sciences, which are specific in relation to philosophy, may in their turn be methodological in relation to the narrower fields of their specific sphere of knowledge. For example, general biology arms botany, zoology and other narrower disciplines with general methods of research. Relying on Philosophy, general biology works out the methodological problems related to all the departments of biological science. This principle is to be found in other sciences as well.
The present-day system of methods in science is as diversified as science itself. We talk, for example, of experimental method, the method of processing empirical data, the method of building scientific theories and their verification, the method of expounding scientific results, i.e., the classification of methods based on the classification of stages of research activity.
According to another classification, methods are divided into philosophical, general scientific, and special scientific methods. Yet another classification relies on different methods of qualitative and quantitative study of reality. The distinction between methods depending on the forms of causality—determinist and probability methods—is of considerable importance in modern science. For example, in biology dialectics is seen through the prism of general scientific methods (systems analysis, the principles of self-regulation, etc.), in specific research projects through apply ing special scientific methods and systems of methods (electronic microscopy, the method of tagged atoms, etc.). One or another method makes it possible to know only separate aspects of the object of research. In order to comprehend all the essential aspects of the object, there must be complementarity of methods. The whole system of methodological knowledge necessarily involves a world-view interpretation of the basis of the research and its results. It should be stressed that general methodology is always at work in the brain of every scientist but, as a rule, it is kept in obscurity, as the intellectual background of a searching mind. This obscurity is sometimes so complete that the scientist may even deny that he acts according to any philosophical methodology, and insist that he is in general free of any philosophy. But this is merely an illusion of the consciousness.
http://marxists.architexturez.net/reference/archive/spirkin/works/dialectical-materialism/ch01-s03.html
Career Opportunities
Traditionally, philosophy students have found their majors prepared them mainly for teaching positions or as a base for future study. However, it has been proven that no matter how technical or specialized your career field may be, the study of philosophy can give you the basic skills needed for thinking about, analyzing, understanding, and solving problems. Philosophy graduates today are discovering that a wide range of non-academic careers are now opening to them. Among these new careers are opportunities in:
Business: advertising executive; assistant manager; hotels; development manager; manpower services coordinator
Computers: systems analyst, consultant, programmer, technical writer
Consulting
Education: non-teaching fields of admissions, librarian, residence hall director, provost, archivist
Finance: bank officer, investment broker
Government: officer in armed forces, CIA, congressional staff member, diplomat, immigration, policy and planning consultant, United Nations official, human services agency, county commissioner
Insurance
Journalism and Publishing: freelance writer, magazine editor, technical writer
Law: lawyer, criminal justice programs, legal researcher, paralegal, security officer
marketing and/or Sales
Religion/Ministry
Research: business, education, government, scientific
Cited
http://baby.indstate.edu/art_sci/phil/careers.html
Post a Comment