Antipositivism

Antipositivism is the view in sociologythat social sciencesneed to create and use different scientific methodsthan those used in the field of natural sciences.

Evolution of the concept

Antipositivism evolved in the 19th century, when sociological positivismand sociological naturalismbegun to be questioned by scientists like Wilhelm Diltheyand Heinrich Rickert, who argued that the world of natureis not the same as the world of society, as human societies have unique aspects like meanings, symbols, rules, norms, and values—all that can be described as the culture.

This view was further developed by Max Weber, who introduced the term antipositivism (also known as humanistic sociology). According to this view, closely related to antinaturalism, sociology research must use specific tools and methods and concentrate on humans and their cultural values. This has led to some controversy on how one can draw the line between subjectiveand objectiveresearch, and influenced the study of hermeneutics.

The base concepts of antipositivism have expanded beyond the scope of social science, in fact, phenomenologyhas the same basic principles at its core. Lately, Chilean biologists Humberto Maturanaand Francisco Varelaapplied these notions to the world of biology, developing a type of relativist science.

Critique of the positivism

Antipositivism criticises many of the positivistic assumptions and principles. First, they argue that there is no methodological unity of science, i.e., that we cannot use the same tools to study natural and social sciences. Antipositivists then add that positivism is restricted to phenomena that can be constrained within an analytical and verifiable fragment of the reality, i.e., that it is impossible to study freedom, irrationality and various unpredictable actions that are common in individual human behaviour. They also argue that knowledge can never be neutral, as it directly translates into power and that positivists attempt to draw an artificial line between observer and the subject. Finally, antipositivsts argue that positivism's two goals - explanation and prediction - are incomplete, since they lack the goal of understanding.

Overview of non-positivistic approaches

There are several approaches in social sciences that are opposing the positivistic view. They are:

• interpretive sociology- developed by Max Weber, connected to hermeneutics, accepts subjectivity, deals with understanding human social behaviourand its influence on social context.
• critical sociology- developed by Karl Marx, contains both nomotheticand idiographicapproaches, tries to combine antipostitivistic interpretive approach with positivism by trying to develop general laws while accepting subjectivity and inductivelogic.

See also

• Postpositivismid:anti positivisme

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipositivism Wikipedia article Antipositivism.