Alfred Victor Espinas (23 May 1844 - 24 February 1922) was a French thinker. He was a student of Comte and Spencer. Although initially an adherent of positivism, he later became a committed realist. May 23 is the 143rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (144th in leap years). ... Jan. ... February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... The word student is etymologically derived through Middle English from the Latin second-type conjugation verb stŭdērĕ, meaning to direct ones zeal at; hence a student is one who directs zeal at a subject. ... Auguste Comte (full name: Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte; January 17, 1798 - September 5, 1857) was a French thinker who coined the term sociology. ... Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher and prominent classic-liberal political theorist. ... // Positivism is a philosophy developed by Auguste Comte (widely regarded as the first true sociologist) in the middle of the 19th century that stated that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method. ... Realism is the modern philosophical doctrine, opposed to nominalism, that universals exist independently of their being thought. ...

Works

• Des sociétés animales (1887)
• Les origines de la technologie (1897)
• La philosophie sociale an XVIIIe siècle et la Revolution (1898)
• Descartes et la morale: Etudes sur l'histoire de la philosophie de l'action (1925)