As Comte argued:
"In 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 to this knowledge. What we now understand by 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.".
Aside from the way this quote neatly encapsulates Comte's basic ideas about a "science of society", it's interesting to note how it follows and develops some of the key ideas of the Enlightenment - in particular the central significance of reason, allied to observation, as the basis for understanding the relationship between things.
The concept of progress is also significant, both in terms of the idea of scientific progress (the development of knowledge about the world) and social progress (the idea that improvements can be made to "the human condition" by the application of scientific reasoning).
In this respect, the idea of social progress had, for Comte, two main elements; firstly, social evolution and, secondly, a scientific politics.
In an overall sense, the above is a strikingly modernist statement of intent that exudes confidence about the possibility of understanding the "natural order of things" and the certainty that, through the application of reason and systematic observation, both the natural and social worlds can be understood.
Note: Laws
Comte considered that the task of science was not the explanation of why things originally came into being (the causes of phenomena) since this, he argued, was an impossible speculation. Physicists, for example, could no more explain why a rock was a rock, a flower a flower or a cloud a cloud than they could explain the origin of matter.
This is an important idea since it points us towards what Comte (and many others since) argued is the real nature and task of science, namely the explanation of causal relationships.
Note: Relations
The task of science, according to Comte, had to be the understanding and explanation of how things related to one another, in terms of invariable and universal laws.
For example, the empirical observation that "night always follows day" can be explained by the scientific law that determines this coexistence and / or succession (the fact that the earth rotates). Thus, for as long as the earth rotates and the sun exists then night will invariably follow day.
Note: Combined
These are key ideas in terms of positivist conceptions of a scientific methodology, since they tell us, in broad terms, how to go about the task of "doing science". As Keat and Urry ("Social Theory As Science", 1975) note:
"Positive science is concerned only with observable phenomena. It involves establishing law-like relations between them through the careful accumulation of factual knowledge. This occurs by means of observation, experimentation, comparison and prediction.".
Note: Progress
Comte elaborates here a general principle in the (natural) sciences, namely the claim that as more and more Laws are discovered, it will be possible, in turn, for these Laws to be explained in terms of their relationship to one another.
In this sense, Comte argues, science consists of the progressive discovery of Laws and their inter- relationships such that, ultimately perhaps, science will arrive at a General Law from which all other Laws derive...