Why did Auguste Comte believe scientific knowledge was limited to observable phenomena?

Auguste Comte, the originator of positivism, argued that scientific knowledge must be restricted to observable phenomena because he believed that seeking absolute truths, ultimate causes, or the "essences" of things—the focus of the earlier theological and metaphysical stages of human development—was inherently fruitless.123

Comte maintained that human intellectual maturity requires abandoning these unanswerable questions in favor of discovering descriptive laws based on the observable relations between phenomena. In his view, genuine knowledge is limited to what can be verified through empirical observation and experiment. He asserted that because human knowledge is relative to our nature as a species and our specific historical and social contexts, any attempt to reach beyond observable facts into metaphysical speculation is a deception.231

By confining science to the study of facts and their regularities, Comte believed humanity could move past the "pseudoexplanations" of the past and establish a stable, scientific foundation for understanding both nature and society.23