Abstract: WANG Yang-Chong analyzed the precursory contribution of Montesquieu to the rise of Western sociology, particular his influence on its founding father, Auguste Comte. After Comte, sociologist Émile Durkheim, Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser and liberal philosopher Raymond Aron also discussed the pivotal role of Montesquieu in the history of Western thought, particularly his pioneering contribution to the emergence of modern social sciences. Durkheim and Althusser argued that Montesquieu didn't fully develop the scientific character of his social studies because he was bound by the traditional philosophy, while Aron emphasized that the philosophical nature of Montesquieu's thought should be taken seriously. This divergence concerns not only the difference of disciplines between philosophy and social sciences, but also the relationship between fact and value and that between plurality and universality, which are fundamental to modern scholarship and modernity.

Key words: WANG Yang-Chong, Montesquieu, Émile Durkheim, Louis Althusser, Raymond Aron