Full Name: Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte
Known AS: Auguste Comte
Nickname: The Father of Sociology

Father: Louis Comte (tax official)
Mother: Rosalie Boyer
Wife: Caroline Massin (m. 1825, div. 1842)
Girlfriend: Clotilde de Vaux

Date of Birth: 19 February 1798
Birth Place: Montpellier, France

Date of Death: 5 September 1857 (aged 59)
Death Place: Paris, France
Cause of Death: Stomach cancer

Remains: Buried, Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Paris, France
Religion: Atheist
Race or Ethnicity: White
Education: Lycee Joffre, École Polytechnique, University of Montpellier
Occupation: Sociologist, Philosopher
Nationality: French

Notable Ideas: Positivism, Law of 3 Stages, Encyclopedic Law, Altruism.

Influenced By: Francis Bacon, David Hume, Marquis de Condorcet, Rousseau, Henri de Saint-Simon, Xavier Bichat.

Major Writings: Plan de Traveaux Scientifiques Nécessaires pour Réorganiser la Société (1822), Cours de philosophie Positive (1830–42, philosophy, 6 vols.), Système de Politique Positive (1851-54, philosophy, 4 vols.), Catéchisme Positiviste (1852), Synthèse Subjective (1856).

French sociologist and philosopher Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (19 February 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism. Comte was the founder of French positivism. He is considered The Father of Sociology. His works influenced 19th-century social thinkers such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Émile Durkheim, Vilfredo Pareto, Adam Smith, and George Eliot.

Early Life & Childhood: Auguste Comte was born in Montpellier, Hérault, in southern France on 19 January 1798. His father, Louis Comte was a tax official and his mother was named Rosalie Boyer. He began with academic study at Lycée Joffre and then the University of Montpellier. In 1814, he was admitted to the École Polytechnique and proved himself a brilliant mathematician and scientist. For student rebellion, Comte was expelled in 1816 from École Polytechnique and he continued his studies at the medical school at Montpellier. From 1817 to 1824, he became a student and secretary to Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon. In 1822, he published Plan de Traveaux Scientifiques Nécessaires pour Réorganiser la Société. In 1826, Comte began presenting a series of lectures to a group of distinguished French intellectuals.

Personal Life: In 1825, Auguste Comte married Caroline Massin. The following year 1826, he was taken to a mental health hospital but left without being cured. He attempted suicide by jumping off the Pont des Arts in 1827. Comte divorced Caroline Massin in 1842. In 1844, Auguste Comte became involved with Clotilde de Vaux, a French writer and the two were deeply in love.

Later Life & Death: Auguste Comte made a close friendship with John Stuart Mill. In 1846, he wrote the System of Positive Polity. He published four volumes of Système de politique positive (1851–1854). Important among his other writings are Catechisme Positivist (1852, tr. 1858) and Synthèse Subjective (1856). Published posthumously were his Testament (1884) and his letters (1902–05). Comte died in Paris on 5 September 1857 at the age of 59 from stomach cancer and was buried in the famous Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Paris, France.