The Imperfections of Human Life - Case Study Example

Contribution of Positivism Introduction Philosophers agree that the goal of philosophy is nothing else but to help people in having a systematic worldview. Moreover, this worldview would come with modifying the imperfections of human life. Philosophy is all about fitting it all together and steeping back to look at the picture as whole. Now quite understandably, when these people look at the picture as whole, they look at metaphysics (the theory of reality), epistemology (the theory of knowledge), Aesthetics (the theory of art and nature), Ethics (the theory of morality), and politics (the theory that related to legal rights, obligations and government). This paper would however move forward with narrowing its focus on epistemology, which is concerned about the sources, nature, and limitations of knowledge. Moreover, epistemology also attempts to look at the process of acquiring knowledge, differentiating between reliable and unreliable knowledge, nature of the knowledge and all other factors involved in the process. Epistemologists differ greatly, as they do in all other aspects of philosophy and there are different schools of thought in epistemology as well. Rationalism believes that knowledge comes with reason, thinking, and discovering ideas, knowledge or reality resides in the ideas, and ideas are “a priori” which come before experience. Empiricism believes that the source of knowledge remains experience and humans only have the access to the ideas of the things and not things. For having the knowledge, we need to use experience. Transcendental idealism is another school of thought, which tries to accommodate both empiricism and rationalism by saying that knowledge is something, which begins with experience and ends at the structural arrangement of knowledge in mind with the use of logic and reasoning. However, there are other schools of thought like intuitionism, authoritarianism, postmodern view and others but we once again narrow down or focus on empiricism since that concerns our rest of the decision. Positivism is one of the most important concepts and developments in the empiricist school of thought, which holds the view that reliable knowledge is only attainable with proper experience and demands verification, very much similar to the scientific way of acquiring knowledge. Famous sociologist and philosopher Auguste Comte deserves all the credit for coming up with a comprehensive framework and layout for this term (Kaines, pp. 16-24, 1880). However, contributions from Hebert Spencer, Emile Durkenheim, and Charles Darwin have also been very important for maturing the concept of positivism (Lindenfeld, pp. 23-30, 1980). With the passage of time, this field has invited many other researchers and philosophers to present their viewpoints and it has developed a distinct field of logical positivism within the original field of positivism. Moreover, it has also invited many criticisms from various experts, which has led to an anti-positivist movement in the 20th century led by Max Weber and Georg Simmel (Giddens, pp. 41-49, 1974). Discussion Looking at the orthodox positivism (not the postmodern view) from a boarder sense would enables to comment that it is actually pretty much the opposite or rejection of metaphysics (Edwards, pp. 10-19, 1972). This is because of the fact that metaphysics attempts at uncovering the reality of this material world and even beyond that. Questions related to existence of God, freewill, existence of this universe and others are a part of metaphysics (Copleston, pp. 112-119, 2003). Metaphysics tries to uncover the reality of “all” the things and happenings around us in order to make life a meaningful and reasonable affair. However, positivism holds the view that knowledge only all about describing the phenomenon of the process or happenings around us and only those that can be experienced (Copleston, pp. 112-119, 2003). Moreover, things, which are beyond human experience and sensing, for a positivist, are not a part of knowledge. As mentioned above, this concept is very much near to science and as science holds that only those objects, which are observable and measurable, can come into the circle of science (Kaines, pp. 16-24, 1880). Experts like B.F. skinner also seemed to hold this view because he argued that scientific psychology should only focus on objects that are measurable and observable, therefore elements and variables like emotions or thinking of the people, which are not measurable, should not become a part of the discussion of reinforcers (Bridges, pp. 36-45, 2007). This explains why positivism has links with behaviorism, which holds the view that all physiological studies should be undertaken by observing the behavior of organisms For positivist, the world operates with a cause and effect principle that is explainable using the scientific method of reasoning. For them, science is the only way to get to the truth and reality of things and the only method by which he can know the ways of controlling and predicting the behavior of those objects. Positivists have faith in deductive reasoning based on experimental methods (Bridges, pp. 36-45, 2007). The idea was to come up with theories using the same approach for explaining all the aspects of nature. This explains why many experts call positivism as the “invisible philosophy of science” because many positivists are more inclined towards using solely scientific approaches rather than focusing on philosophical approaches, issues, and problems. The French philosopher Auguste Comte, without any doubts, is the founder of positivism and “philosopher of science.” He deserves all the credit for his extensive work on positivism as early as in the first half of the 19th century (Comte & Lenzer, pp. 3-9, 1992). With his books, “The Course in Positivist Philosophy”, “A General View of Positivism” and others, he put forward his idea of three stages of human life or evolution (Comte & Bridges, pp. 10-15, 1865). For Comte, the first stage in the progress of humankind was of theological were humans used supernatural power or agencies to understand and explain the activities, processes and phenomenon that he otherwise did not understand. Humans used to believe and pray to every bigger object and associate godlike qualities with them (Comte & Lenzer, pp. 3-9, 1992). The second stage of this process was “metaphysical” when obscure forces were thought to be the cause of natural phenomenon. Despite the fact that hums had hit the bull’s eye in identifying, the sources but they still lacked in understanding of the causes. However, humans then progressed to an entirely new era where they understood the scientific laws, which determine the cause and effect relationships of the natural processes (Comte & Bridges, pp. 10-15, 1865). This was the age, which marks the beginning of positivism, according to Comte. Also important here to note is that many philosophers view Comte skeptically because of the fact that for him, positivism was a new secular religion and he considered himself as the pope of this new religion. Without acknowledging the contributions of Herbert Spencer not only English literature and philosophy is incomplete but also positivism also remains an unfinished business with the discussion of his contributions. Herbert remains famous for his idea of “survival of the fittest,” which is related to evolution. In fact, he has talked about positivism in the context of evolution as well. Spencer believed that the whole universe is a product of evolution. As positivists would do, he classified the laws of evolution into “concentration” and “differentiation.” Concentration being the transition of elements from the state of instability to a stable position and “differentiation” being the process by which elements moved from the state of homogeneity to heterogeneity. He even tried to explain morality with scientific principles that some of the ethical principles are actually a part of our heredity. For Spencer, only God was something that was not an object of science and something, which is absolute and absolute, cannot be relative (Lindenfeld, pp. 23-30, 1980). John Stuart Mills, one of all time greatest English philosophers, was very much impressed with Hume’s empiricism initially but latter he became one of the foremost representatives of positivism. According to Mill, we only facts that are observable and it is possible to experience them. Moreover, for Mill, all reality is merely sensible data. However, he also acknowledges the fact that we cannot sense all the data therefore; human spirit is receiving sensations all the time (Mill, pp. 13-17, 1866). Experts agree that despite the fact that Comte led the foundations of positivism were put by Comte but it were the contributions of Emile Durkheim that made the concept of positivism what it is today. He founded the first department devoted to this subject in any European university. For Emile, sociology was nothing but “The science of social facts” (Simon, pp. 95-103, 1963). Based on these social facts, one can find out that whether a society is “healthy” or “pathological” (Simon, pp. 95-103, 1963). Moreover, one can also take steps to fix the problems with any society. Experts also believe that Emile’s positivism was a product of the unverified and unauthentic theories of his time that led him to the announcement of importance of empirical evidence (Simon, pp. 95-103, 1963). Despite the fact that Charles Darwin did not directly work for positivism under its name as such but his theory of evolution was a basis for other philosophers to ask for empirical evidence for any theory that they present. It is also important to note that positivism and enlightenment, both of them share few similarities, which are worth mentioning. Both enlightenment and positivism have links with empiricism and both of them have their emphasis on using reason for uncovering the knowledge (Uebel, pp. 85-94, 1992). Despite the fact that positivism has more focus on observation and experience but positivism silently acknowledges the role of reasoning fro interpretation and understanding that broken experience. Both of these schools of thought attempt towards verifying and authenticating their knowledge. Moreover, the age of enlightenment in the western philosophy is the 18th century, which is the same time when positivism was growing in the mind of Comte (Caldwell, pp. 36-39, 2003). Conclusion Without any doubts, positivism was one of the most important developments in the history of philosophy although its adherents found it closer to science rather than philosophy. Like any other philosophical developments and concepts, it found itself attacked by many philosophers on various grounds. In fact, those criticisms led many of its followers to take an entirely different and new position of what we call post-positivism or post modern positivism (LeGouis, pp. 139, 144, 1997). Moreover, interesting here is to note that post-positivism is not merely a slight modification in the positivist concepts to adapt it in the new world but it is complete and serious shift from the original concepts thus identifying the weaknesses of the original theory (Groff, pp. 43-49, 2004). A post-positivist may begin by saying that there is no difference between scientific reasoning and common sense reasoning. In other words, there is no difference between the way in which scientists think and work, and in the way that a common work thinks, makes decisions, and reaches to assumptions and conclusions (Achinstein & Barker, pp. 156-163, 1969). For example, when someone would be investing be investing in very risk investment then he or she would carefully measure, observe, analyze and calculate the risk, returns, tradeoff, opportunity cost and other variables (Weinberg, pp. 103-121, 2007). Another example would be of parents who remain cautious about their children all the times notice all possible details about them and keep their calculations and evaluations about their children (Hanfling, pp. 65-74, 1981). Moreover, post-positivists prefer taking the approach of critical realism and acknowledge the fact that not all realties can be uncovered with using scientific methods and approaches. Even the most accurate and valid scientific measures would even have errors and biasness involved (Weinberg, pp. 103-121, 2007). Therefore, post-positivists prefer using multiple methods for observation, measurement and for having the knowledge of anything and everything. Post-positivists realize the fact that experience, observation and sensory information is unclear, incomplete, broken, and imperfect and limited (Groff, pp. 43-49, 2004). Furthermore, many people in the world are without some or all senses. There should be a way for them also to uncover the reality and reach to the ultimate knowledge of things. References Achinstein, Peter, & Barker, Stephen Francis. (1969). The Legacy of logical positivism: studies in the philosophy of science. Johns Hopkins Press. Bridges, John Henry. (2007). Illustrations of Positivism: A Selection of Articles from the "Positivist Review" in Science, Philosophy, Religion, and Politics. READ BOOKS. Caldwell, B. (2003). Beyond Positivism. Routledge. 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The transformation of positivism: Alexius Meinong and European thought, 1880-1920. University of California Press. Mill, John Stuart. (1866). Auguste Comte and positivism. N. Tuübner. Simon, Walter Michael. (1963). European positivism in the nineteenth century: an essay in intellectual history. Cornell University Press. Uebel, Thomas Ernst. (1992). Overcoming logical positivism from within: the emergence of Neurath's naturalism in the Vienna Circle's protocol sentence debate. Rodopi. Weinberg, Julius Rudolph. (2007). An Examination of Logical Positivism. Read Books. Read More