Thinker
Auguste Comte
Auguste Comte is central to 28 previous-year questions, spanning 2010 to 2025 across Paper I. Everything below is drawn from the official papers — the questions themselves, the concepts they test, and where they sit in the syllabus.
28Questions
2010–25Years tested
IPaper
5Syllabus topics
Concepts asked alongside Auguste Comte
What the examiner actually wants you to know when this name appears.
positivism 18empiricism 7objectivity 6verstehen 6modernity 4enlightenment 3enlightenment rationalism 3industrial revolution 3interpretivism 3social facts 3value neutrality 3comparative method 2conflict theory 2evolutionary theory 2falsifiability 2french revolution 2idea of progress 2meaning and social action 2
Where Auguste Comte appears in the syllabus
Every question on Auguste Comte
Each links to a full breakdown — how to approach it, a model answer, and the examiner’s perspective.
2025
2024
2022
2020
2018
2017
- Discuss distinct sociological method adopted by Emile Durkheim in his study of 'suicide'.
- Examine any two theories of social change in detail.
- Examine the basic postulates of positivism and post-positivism.
- Explain how sociology has emerged as a distinct discipline based on rationality and scientific temper.
2016
2015
2013
2011
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