Final answer:
Auguste Comte believed in a scientific hierarchy with mathematics at the base, ascending to astronomy, physics, chemistry, and biology topped by sociology. Sociology, for Comte, represented the culmination of sciences where empirical study could inform societal progress through the positivist approach.
Step-by-step explanation:
Auguste Comte, a French philosopher and the father of sociology believed in a hierarchy wherein sciences were organized from the most general and abstract to the most specific and concrete. His hierarchy of sciences started with mathematics at its base, as the foundation upon which other sciences were built. Following mathematics was astronomy, then physics, chemistry, biology, and at the top, sociology. Comte posited that each science depended on the truths of the sciences below it, culminating in sociology which drew from all the other sciences and focused on the empirical study of social patterns—a concept he termed positivism.
Comte saw sociology as the ultimate science that could address key societal issues, like poor education and poverty, once sociologists uncovered the laws governing society. Amid the Enlightenment era, Comte's approach was revolutionary, advocating for a rational and empirical analysis of society in contrast to the earlier, more metaphysical approaches to understanding human behavior and institutions.