Auguste Comte

Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

French philosopher, founder of positivism and sociology

1798 – 1857 · 59 years · Paris · Europe

Philosophy: Positivism (founder)

Taught that knowledge passes through three stages, theological, metaphysical and scientific, and that only what experience confirms is reliable: the founding idea of positivism. He also coined the word 'sociology' for the science of society.

Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century

Portrait: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Contemporaries around the world

Europe

Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 11 years younger
Karl Marx — philosopher and economist, 20 years younger
Queen Victoria — Queen of the United Kingdom, 21 years younger
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 49 years older
Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 28 years older
Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 29 years older

Eastern Europe & Russia

Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 1 year younger
Fyodor Dostoevsky — novelist, 23 years younger
Leo Tolstoy — novelist, 30 years younger
Dmitri Mendeleev — chemist, creator of the periodic table, 36 years younger
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — composer, 42 years younger
Nicholas I — emperor who crushed the Decembrist revolt, 2 years older

Middle East

Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 13 years older
Abdulmejid I — sultan of the Tanzimat reforms, 25 years younger
Abdul Hamid II — the 'Red Sultan' who dissolved the first parliament, 44 years younger
Abdulaziz — first sultan to visit Western Europe, 32 years younger
Mehmed V Reşad — sultan under whom the empire entered World War I, 46 years younger
Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 37 years older

Africa

Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 29 years older
David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 15 years younger
Shaka — King of the Zulu, 11 years older
Menelik II — Emperor of Ethiopia, 46 years younger
Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 20 years older
Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 12 years older

Asia

Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 38 years older
Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 25 years older
Tokugawa Yoshinobu — last shogun, who handed power back to the emperor, 39 years younger
Tokugawa Ieyoshi — shogun who died just after the Black Ships arrived, 5 years older
Tokugawa Iesada — shogun under whom Japan opened its ports to the West, 26 years younger
Empress Dowager Cixi — Empress Dowager of China, 37 years younger

Americas

Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 11 years younger
Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 15 years older
Thomas Edison — inventor and businessman, 49 years younger
José de San Martín — liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru, 20 years older
Benito Juárez — President of Mexico, 8 years younger
Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 31 years older

Oceania

Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 40 years older
Truganini — Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, 14 years younger
Henry Parkes — Premier of New South Wales, 'Father of Federation', 17 years younger
Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 26 years older
Liliʻuokalani — Queen of Hawaii, 40 years younger
Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 60 years older

The world in their lifetime

1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 0, Africa
1800 Volta's pile, the first battery — aged 2, Europe
1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 5, Americas
1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 6, Europe
1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 6, Europe
1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 6, Africa
1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 7, Africa
1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 7, Europe
1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 12, Americas
1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 14, Eastern Europe & Russia
1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 16, Europe
1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 17, Asia
1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 17, Europe
1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 18, Europe
1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 19, Asia
1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 19, Americas
1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 21, Asia
1822 Independence of Brazil — aged 24, Americas
1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay — aged 30, Middle East
c. 1831 Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa — aged 33, Asia
1833 Abolition of slavery in the British Empire — aged 35, Europe
c. 1835–1846 The Great Trek — aged 37, Africa
1835 Darwin in the Galápagos — aged 37, Americas
1838–1839 Trail of Tears — aged 40, Americas
1839–1842 First Opium War — aged 41, Asia
1839 Birth of photography: the daguerreotype — aged 41, Europe
1839 The Edict of Gülhane opens the Tanzimat — aged 41, Middle East
1839–1842 First Anglo-Afghan War — aged 41, Middle East
1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — aged 47, Europe
1846 First public demonstration of ether anaesthesia — aged 48, Americas
1846–1848 Mexican–American War — aged 48, Americas
1847 Liberia declares independence — aged 49, Africa
1848–1849 Revolutions of 1848 — aged 50, Europe
1848 The Communist Manifesto — aged 50, Europe
1850–1864 Taiping Rebellion — aged 52, Asia
1851 The Australian gold rushes — aged 53, Oceania
1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — aged 55, Asia
1853–1856 Crimean War — aged 55, Eastern Europe & Russia