The starting point is as follows:
First of all, people have both perceptual and rational qualifications. Emotional qualifications make people like change and hate patience; Intellectual qualification makes people endure long-term, boring and monotonous work in order to survive. The former is generally in an absolute advantage, so people always feel tired easily.
However, in the process of social evolution, the latter develops continuously, weakening the former, making people accept even the most undesirable activities and turn them into necessary activities. The relationship between them has great influence on the nature of human society. Comte advocates that people should develop superior intellectual qualities than animals.
Secondly, human feelings are divided into personal feelings and social feelings. Personal feelings are often selfish, and even make people disregard morality in order to meet instinctive needs. Social feelings are often altruistic, making people love others as themselves. In the real society, people's self-interest instinct often occupies an absolute advantage, but we can't think that human nature is fundamentally immoral, because personal self-interest instinct is the "first indispensable motivation" in real life.
Comte said that personal feelings have pointed out the purpose and direction for our social activities. Without it, individuals will be indifferent to social life, and even in turn contradict social feelings and harm social interests.
visual angle
Comte believes that everyone has egoism (personal instinct) and altruism (social instinct), and social life comes from the reconciliation of the two. Society is an organism, and its components are interrelated. The cell of society is the family, not the individual. Family is the epitome of society and a small society. Society is established in the way of family, and society is the sum of families.
He has a famous saying: How can you love others if you don't love yourself? Therefore, he advocates that the solution to social problems is not to eliminate the dominant position of personal instinct, but to properly coordinate personal feelings and social feelings so that they complement each other.