About positivism
About positivism
- Positivism has both people in favor and detractors, here are some points in favor and against this thought
Positivism (Feigl, 2018) is the philosophical current (Qué es el/la, n.d.) that has created one of the most used rules for the study of the natural sciences, this proposal was created by Auguste Comte and defended by philosophers like Francis Bacon when delivering tools such as the scientific method for the validation of science. This model has had defenders and detractors (Idoneos, n.d.), since being of the empiricist type, it leaves aside the speculative sciences and those of a more inductive nature, such as, for example, psychology, phylosophy and history.
This current appeared in France at the time of the revolution, it is controversial, because being empiricist and leaving out everything that is not realizable by the scientific method, that is, the human sciences and other forms of thought, these would be left out of positivist sciences and would not be valid objects of study, except for sociology. In other words, all soft sciences cease to be sciences and only the hard sciences remain to be verifiable with the scientific method, which, in short, is to have a hypothesis, test it experimentally and that this experiment can be replicated or compared. One of the problems with this method is that many times an isolated phenomenon is studied, so the ones that intervene are less variable compared to real circumstances. One of the phenomena that occurs with this way of testing the hypotheses is that it ends in the abstraction of knowledge, something with which the original positivism does not agree.
Comte defined humanity in three stages, the first, a theological state, in which everything was attributed to different deities; then comes a philosophical or metaphysical stage, in which more answers to natural phenomena are sought; to end with the scientific or positive stage, in which reasons for how things happen are sought. Positivism also classifies the sciences, among which are mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology and sociology. In summary, positivism leaves out everything that is speculative or can be obtained by inductive procedure, although a point in favor of positivism is that it leaves out of science everything that may be superstitions. In conclusion, for a positivist view and the use of the scientific method to be valid, it only depends on the objective of the study and how the research questions are posed.
This current appeared in France at the time of the revolution, it is controversial, because being empiricist and leaving out everything that is not realizable by the scientific method, that is, the human sciences and other forms of thought, these would be left out of positivist sciences and would not be valid objects of study, except for sociology. In other words, all soft sciences cease to be sciences and only the hard sciences remain to be verifiable with the scientific method, which, in short, is to have a hypothesis, test it experimentally and that this experiment can be replicated or compared. One of the problems with this method is that many times an isolated phenomenon is studied, so the ones that intervene are less variable compared to real circumstances. One of the phenomena that occurs with this way of testing the hypotheses is that it ends in the abstraction of knowledge, something with which the original positivism does not agree.
Comte defined humanity in three stages, the first, a theological state, in which everything was attributed to different deities; then comes a philosophical or metaphysical stage, in which more answers to natural phenomena are sought; to end with the scientific or positive stage, in which reasons for how things happen are sought. Positivism also classifies the sciences, among which are mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology and sociology. In summary, positivism leaves out everything that is speculative or can be obtained by inductive procedure, although a point in favor of positivism is that it leaves out of science everything that may be superstitions. In conclusion, for a positivist view and the use of the scientific method to be valid, it only depends on the objective of the study and how the research questions are posed.
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References:
Feigl, H. (2018). "Positivism". En Encyclopædia Britannica. Recuperado de https://www.britannica.com/topic/positivism
Idoneos. (s.f.). Antipositivismo. Recuperado de https://filosofia.idoneos.com/filosofia_de_la_ciencia/antipositivismo/
Qué es el/la. (s.f.). Positivismo. Recuperado de https://queesela.net/positivismo/
Feigl, H. (2018). "Positivism". En Encyclopædia Britannica. Recuperado de https://www.britannica.com/topic/positivism
Idoneos. (s.f.). Antipositivismo. Recuperado de https://filosofia.idoneos.com/filosofia_de_la_ciencia/antipositivismo/
Qué es el/la. (s.f.). Positivismo. Recuperado de https://queesela.net/positivismo/
How to cite this article:
Nocetti, F.A. (2019). "About positivism". In NabbuBlog. Retrieved from http://nabbublog.blogspot.com/2019/01/about-positivism.html