What is Positivism?

what is positivism positivism is the view that the only authentic knowledge is scientific or positive knowledge positive here means a posterior eye facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience as such it Rejects and considers meaningless a priori ways of knowing religious faith and metaphysical speculations positivism was developed in the mid-19th century by the French sociologist and philosopher August Kant it then went through several stages known by various names such as Imperial criticism logical positivism and logical empiricism finally merging in the mid-20th century into analytic philosophy the term positivism comes from the French positivism derived from positive which has several meanings such as imposed on the Mind by experience objective and certain main ideas and principles there are two basic affirmations in positivism one all knowledge regarding matters of fact is based on the positive data of experience and two beyond the realm of fact is that of pure logic and pure mathematics as mentioned earlier positivists reject metaphysical speculations or inquiries about the nature of reality that go beyond any possible evidence they consider themselves a secular or anti-metaphysical and anti-theological they strictly adhere to the evidence provided only by experience and the scientific method in addition to these affirmations positivism also follows five main principles one the logic of inquiry or research is the same across all Sciences both natural and social positivists believe in the unity of science they argue that all knowledge is interconnected and that there is no fundamental difference between the Natural Sciences the social sciences and the humanities as such they are convinced that the scientific method can be applied to all fields of inquiry and that all knowledge can be acquired through empirical observation and experimentation two the goal of inquiry is to discover and predict the necessary and sufficient conditions for any phenomenon according to Kant the task of the sciences and of knowledge in general is to study the facts and regularities of Nature and society and to formulate these regularities as descriptive laws three inquiry should be empirically observable with human senses and should use inductive logic to develop statements that can be tested positivists adhere to the concept of falsifiability that is that scientific theories must be falsifiable or capable of being tested and potentially disproved this means that scientific theories must be open to criticism and that they must be able to withstand attempts to disprove them if a theory is not falsifiable then positivists do not consider it scientific four science should be judged by Logic and should be as objective as possible its ultimate goal is to produce knowledge regardless of values morals politics Etc another important Concept in positivism is the distinction between facts and values positivists argue that facts are objective and thus can be observed and measured while values are subjective and cannot be objectively verified they believe that scientific knowledge should be based on facts rather than on values meaning that scientific theories must be based on empirical evidence rather than on personal beliefs or biases and five science is not the same as common sense and researchers must be careful not to let Common Sense bias their inquiry two types of positivism in the following two sections we will talk about two of the many types of positivism the social positivism of August Kant and logical positivism comp social positivism comps positivism was postulated in his account of the evolution of society following the general law of three stages he argued that Society undergoes three phases in its search for the truth these three stages were the theological the metaphysical and the positive in the theological stage natural phenomena are explained as the result of Supernatural powers regardless of the religion Divine Powers were believed to cause natural events Kant however rejected these explanations as primitive projections of unverifiable entities in the metaphysical stage natural events are assumed to be caused by impersonal Powers vital forces or intellicies or internal perfecting principles again comp rejected these explanations claiming that questions concerning Ultimate Reality and first causes are unanswerable in the positive or scientific stage the same natural events are explained using science science does this by studying the facts and regularities of Nature and society and formulating these regularities as descriptive laws according to Kant humankind reached full maturity of thought only after abandoning the theological and metaphysical stages and adhering to science this idea of intellectual progress was Central to Kant new science sociology which according to him is the queen of all the social sciences as it is able to do more than what the other social sciences could logical positivism logical positivism later and more accurately called logical empiricism is a philosophical school that combines empiricism the idea that observational evidence is indispensable for knowledge of the world with a version of rationalism or the idea that our knowledge includes a component that is not derived from observation logical positivism Grew From the discussions of a group called The Vienna circle before World War One some of its doctrines can be found in the 1929 pamphlet written by Otto new wrath Hans Han and Rudolf khanap these included 1. the opposition to all metaphysics especially ontology and synthetic a priori propositions 2. the rejection of metaphysics not as wrong but as meaningless that is not empirically verifiable three a Criterion of meaning based on Ludwig wichtenstein's early work which he himself later refuted 4. the idea that all knowledge should be codifiable in a single standard language of science and above all five the project of rational reconstruction in which ordinary language Concepts were replaced by more precise equivalents in that standard language the project however is widely considered to have failed but when Rudolf carnap moved to the United States he proposed a replacement for the earlier doctrines this change of Direction and The differing beliefs of some members of the circle led to a consensus that the English name for the shared doctrinal platform should be logical empiricism criticisms positivism has been criticized for its reductionism or for claiming that all natural processes are reducible to physiological physical or chemical events while all social processes are reducible to actions of and relationships between individuals other critics such as Wilhelm dilthy fought against the positivist claim that only explanations derived from science are valid dilfi reaffirmed the Italian philosopher Jam Batista vico's argument that scientific explanations do not reach the inner nature of phenomena and that it is humanistic knowledge that gives us insight into thoughts feelings and desires several religious and philosophical thinkers also criticized positivism stating that yes truth begins in sense experience but it doesn't end there according to them positivism fails to prove that there are no abstract ideas laws and principles Beyond observable facts or that we cannot know them nor does it prove that material things constitute the whole order of existing beings and that our knowledge is limited to them if you like our content please follow us on Facebook and subscribe to our channel for more videos thank you and see you in our next one

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Id: Mc7GjJq_fDQ

Length: 8min 9sec (489 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 25 2023