Positivism : A Theoretical Approach

Positivism originated with August Comte. It was considered a philosophical approach that replaced speculation with science. Positivist theorists believe

With their powerful warning against ideological certainty, these books had a profound influence on my thinking which is now axiomatically anti-foundationalist. I now seek deeper understanding of, rather than a facile allegiance to any particular dogma. To that end, I try maintain an ideological

Constructivism is the learning theory that focuses on observation by acquiring data and thereafter reexamining, altering, and updating information to be useful in the present time. Humans process experiences, knowledge, and conception of life based on their impressions of their past. As individuals experience an unfamiliar event, they will attempt to integrate it with their knowledge and past, therefore replacing old outdated or incorrect data with new more pertinent information (Kerka, 1997). This learning theory states that learning is an ongoing process and not about merely comprehending available data without questioning, processing, and updating previously learned information (Allen, 2005).

Weber, the founding father of the Anti-Positivist School of Thought, rejected the assumptions of positivism stating that they produce numbers, results and statistics that are based on meanings, negotiations and interactions and advocated the use of

In order to critically compare positivism and anti-positivism, firstly the concepts themselves need to be defined. Positivism takes a scientific approach; it is value free, and takes on the idea that the world exists with only natural law, and the methodological approach of society are not taken into account. Positivism follows a structured process; observation, hypothesis, proof and then fact, similar to that seen in scientific or mathematical methods. It takes into account three main aspects. These are empiricism; the idea that all knowledge comes from the senses, naturalism; the idea that everything known comes from the natural world rather than the social realm and scepticism; the ability to disprove the findings. In Social Theory in the Twentieth Century by Patrick Baert, he describes positivism as ‘part of an attempt to sweep away the metaphysical burden of our western philosophical heritage’ going on to say that ‘positivism conceives of sensory observations as a solid foundation (if not the only foundation) for the development of scientific knowledge’ (Baert, 1998, p175). The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as:

Jean – Jacques Rousseau was a very influential philosopher of the Enlightenment period. Not only did he contribute ideas and opinions to society, but he also produced several new theories. Although Jean - Jacques had to go through a rough childhood, a trying education phase, and difficult experiences, he made himself into a highly valued person of his time; Rousseau was so valued that he even ended up in our history books. His ideas of empirical learning, the people – good but society corrupt concept, and his social contract, all sparked immediate new ideas, ones that really made people stop and think like never before.

There are many sociologists in the world with many different ways and opinions to understand society. Some see the world as basically a stable ongoing entity while others see society as composed of many groups in conflict, competing for scarce resources (Schaefer, p. 13). Additionally, views of other sociologists believe society is an impressive machine that people take for granted, the social aspects of everyday life and its routine interactions of one to another. The three views the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist theoretical perspectives are the ones that mostly used by sociologists.

The paradigm that I will be using as an example is the positivist approach. First, as a positivist, I believe that the study of society must be confined to gathering information about phenomena that may be objectively classified and observed.

Positivism and post-positivist paradigm ontology according to Travers (2010), assumes that the “real world exists independently of human perceptions” (Audio Lecture 2). For example, the indigenous people living in the North have perceptions that the pipeline would negatively affect their well-being. On the other hand, western society including the corporations and the government feel that the pipeline would not only enhance the welfare of the ingenious people but also the economy. According to Berger (1988), “How the rest of the Canada perceives the pipeline and the issues that surround it is not at all how the real world would perceive it. According to Travers, (2010), “[t]he overall goal, therefore, of social sciences is, like physical sciences, to construct universal laws abut the social world and human behaviour that hold true across time, place, and culture” (p. 12). The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry is so specific to a certain culture and to say that this can hold true across all cultures is a weakness. The indigenous peoples hunt, and live in northern Canada where the weather is different from other parts of the world therefore, holding this true across cultures and

Augustus Comte is regarded as the founder of this, however it is described as “a simple adherence to the traditions of all great scientific minds” Mill (2005 chptr 1) and a “doctrine that science (including the social sciences) can deal only with observable things and that phenomena, in any form, have to be studied in a scientific manner. It does not take account of the individual's interpretation

The “Vienna Circle” was a group of philosophers of the twentieth century, who met with the aim of finding the truth. These famous philosophers founded a school of thought known as logical or empirical positivism, and as a result of that, this school is highly recognized in the history of philosophy. In other words, this group, also known as a gang of philosophers, has as much right to be a school of philosophy as any other school at that time. The group included several philosophers such as Rudolph Carnap and Kurt Godel, who were the founders of the group, which as its name, began meeting in Vienna in the twentieth century. These philosophers who formed the “Vienna Circle”, dedicated to the philosophy of reconciliation with the new sciences and decided to take charge themselves to assess the truth only in terms of empirical verifiability, or logical of language, which lead philosophy a path interesting. This is called either, “Logical Positivism” or “Empirical Positivism”.

Positivism, on the whole, essentially looked to decipher the world as a mechanistic entity. Mathematical relations and the determination of ‘facts’ in proposed structures where the salient characteristics of

Positivism is based on a notion that science is an only way to learn about the truth and this perspective belongs to epistemology which is denoted as philosophy of knowing. It majorly depends on quantifiable observations which lead to statistical analysis of the data. It has been noted positivism is in accordance with the empirical view that knowledge stems from human experience. This perspective

Heather(1976, p12) states that “positivism is a position in epistemology.” Positivism is based on empiricism which means that all knowledge or ideas are based on sense experience(Phillips, 2000). There are two types of positivism. The first type is classical positivism which was developed by philosopher Auguste

Phenomenology is a philosophical movement which emerged at the end of the nineteenth century in the school of Franz Brentano. It was developed by Edmund Husserl and subsequently modified by his successors Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty and Sarte among many others. It is hard to summarise their shared philosophical beliefs as one as each had differing views on what phenomenology should entail. For the purpose of this essay I will examine phenomenology in general, what it accomplished and why it is important. The birth of phenomenology is said to have begun with Husserl’s book Logical Investigations which was written at the beginning of the twentieth century.