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Positivism - Coggle Diagram
Positivism
Empiricism
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positivism emphasizes the need for empirical evidence - verified data received from the senses - therefore positivism is based on empiricism
Empiricism emphasises the roles of experience and evidence and is the basis of the scientific method
hypothesis and theories must be tested in light of actual observations of the natural world, rather than being accepted on the basis of a priori reasoning or intuition
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critical realism
like the positivist, a critical realist recognises an objective reality independent of the researcher
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verifiability
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whatever cannot be conceivably measured or solved logically was considered a waste of time and effort
definition
a philosophy that states that every valid assertion can be scientifically verified or is capable of logical or mathematical proof
Hence positivism rejects theism (belief in a god/s) and speculation/intuition about origins, being etc.
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towards the end of the 1800s and beginning of 1900s, some leading scientists took this positivist approach (Ernst March and Friedrich Ostwald)
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however, by the 1930s, positivism started losing its appeal
physics at the beginning of the 20th century was showing limitations of such a strict approach that emphasised measurements and verification and excluded anything else
Einstein
mathematically confirmed the existence of atoms and revolutionized science through statistics and probability
supported the work of Planck and Boltzmann and showed that reasonable assumptions had a role in science
Planck and Boltzmann would never have come up with their theories if they had taken a positivist approach
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an empirical approach based on quantitative research is very much what scientific inquiry is about. It has its place in social research, particularly when questionnaires and random surveys are analysed statistically to draw meaningful results
however, in situations involving human subjects, non-empirical approaches can gain valuable insights that empirical methods will miss
Thomas Kuhn is considered a post-positivist since his views on science emphasized that research and knowledge are subjected to bias and are very much influenced by current knowledge
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although an empirical-based approach is what the scientific method is all about, positivism as a philosophical approach is highly problematic in the natural sciences
nowadays positivism as a philosophical approach has gone out of favour and has largely given way to post-positivist ideas