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Demise of
Positivism
Positivism
During the
Russian
Revolution, the
received
account is
that the Czar
and all his
family died
after being
taken prisoner.
Presumably she
changed her name, but
those close to her
would have known her
true identity.
Once a Romanov,
always a Romanov.
The Parallelism.
Before we proceed
just some
clarifications
What is a
philosophical
assumption?
Philosophical Assumptions
Ontological Assumption What
is the nature of reality? Is reality
singular or multiple?
Epistemological Assumption
What counts as knowledge?
Where does knowledge reside?
Axiological Assumption
What is the role of values?
What is the place of value?
Methodological Assumption
How knowledge is arrived at
Means of knowing
What
is positivism?
Labels of
of Positivism
1.Comtean-type
positivism
Theological or
Fictitious Stage
Metaphysical or
Abstract Stage
Although at this point events are still
explained by unseen forces, they are no
longer anthropomorphized as gods and take
more abstract or philosophical forms, such
as Aristotle's concepts of essences or the
existence of hidden purposes in all things.
Scientific or
Positive Stage
At this point, there is no recourse to invisible
entities or hidden structures. They are
replaced by acute observation of facts and
cause and effects with precise mathematical
principles, all of which end up giving
humanity control over predicting and
eventually manipulating nature and society.
Logical positivists
wanted to expunge
metaphysics from
science
B. Adopted the
verifiability principle of
meaning.
Laws of nature
Universal generalization of the form all X are
Y (its impossible to check on all members of
the class X)
3. Behaviorism
-Behaviorists favored
operationalism and have been
hostile to abstract theorizing in
the sciences
Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a
purely objective experimental branch of
natural science. Its theoretical goal is the
prediction and control of behavior
John Watson
4. Empiricism
-Logical
positivism is
type of
empiricism, but
not all types of
empiricism are
positivistic
So is
positivism
really dead?
Which aspects of
positivism died,
and how?
1. Comtean
positivism as a
general position it is
no longer espoused,
but like an old
soldier it faded away
rather than died
Popper wrote:
A further and less interesting point was the
sheer absurdity of the use of verifiability as a
meaning criterion: how could one ever say that
a theory was gibberish because it could not be
verified? Was it necessary to understand a
theory in order to judge whether or not it could
be verified? And could an
understandable theory
be sheer gibberish?
Mistaken claims
about the death
of positivism
Thanks
Joane V. Serrano
http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/positvsm.php
http://www.importanceofphilosophy.com/Epistemology_Philosophy.html
http://greatthinkers.suite101.com/article.cfm/comtes_positivism_and_the_hi
storical_phases#ixzz0OPGjSEVt