 From these introductory remarks, some of the main threads of what follows can already be seen. First, whatever the exact worth of the two groups of writings that surround it may be, the Course of Positive Philosophy (hereafter Course) remains Comte’s major contribution. Second, an interpretation of the whole of Comte’s work is confronted with two problems. The first problem concerns the unity of Comte’s thought: do the first and the second career form a continuum, or is there a break? The second problem concerns Comte’s relationship to Saint-Simon (see below 3.2.): is the founder of positivism merely one Saint-Simonian among others, as Durkheim maintained, or should one, as Gouhier (1933) proposed, follow Comte himself, who on this matter spoke of a ‘disastrous contact’ that had, at best, merely hindered his ‘spontaneous development’ (1830 (56), v. 2,  466)?[1].