Positivism

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.

founded by Auguste Comte

considered to be founder of sociology

Empiricism

a theory that knowledge comes from sensory experience

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

contrasts with rationalism

rationalism - the view that considers reason in itself as a source of knowledge independent of experience

Comte believed that sociology would benefit society through politics based on scientific conclusions in the same way as it has benefited from science and technology

Comte started applying the methods of science to the study of society - hence credited with founding sociology - the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society

according to Comte, like the physical world, society functions according to general laws

therefore, knowledge of society needs to be based on facts, structured observation, experimentation and analysis of data

towards the end of the 1800s and beginning of 1900s, some leading scientists took this positivist approach (Ernst March and Friedrich Ostwald)

ended up rejecting atomic theory because atoms could not be accounted for empirically

associated with the Vienna Circle

small group of philosophers, scientists and mathematicians that met regularly at the University of Vienna betweed the mid 1920s and mid 1930s to investigate the methods and language of science

the school of philosophy was responsible for the establishment and refinement of logical positivism

verifiability

the significance of a statement exclusively depends on measurement

whatever cannot be conceivably measured or solved logically was considered a waste of time and effort

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

Werner Heisenberg

uncertainty principle

it is not possible to measure simultaneously both the position and the momentum of a particle

highlighted the limitations of measurement and verification as being the sole criteria for scientific conclusions

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

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

nowadays positivism as a philosophical approach has gone out of favour and has largely given way to post-positivist ideas

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

Karl Popper - post-positivist

his concept of paradigm shifts indicates the changing nature of scientific knowledge

he argues that it is not only individual theories, but sometimes entire worldviews that may occasionally need to shift to accommodate evidence

emphasizes role of falsification rather than verification in the acquisition of knowledge - he never treated the results of scientific inquiry as final and immutable, irrespective of the fact that they were obtained by a rigorous, empirical approach

critical realism

like the positivist, a critical realist recognises an objective reality independent of the researcher

a critical realist recognizes that even relying on empirical evidence has its limitations

observations can be inaccurate

all theory is subject to future revision

objectivity remains the ideal - it can only be approximated

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