The Principles of Positivism - Research Paper Example

The Principles of Positivism Background Auguste Compte’s treatise ‘The Course in Positive Philosophy’ first introduced the terms ‘positivism’ and ‘positive philosophy’ that are considered symbols of a recognised mode of thought, and which, according to Mill, are better known through the enemies of this mode of thinking, rather than due to its adherents (1882). Compte himself regarded Francis Bacon, Descartes and Galileo as antecedents of his concept of human knowledge; he defined his version of ‘positive philosophy’ stating that the only existing knowledge is the one of phenomena, and that this knowledge is not absolute but relative, hence, what is known, as Mill describes it later, is neither the essence nor the real mode of production of any fact, but only its relations to other facts, which relations are constant – always the same in the same circumstances (1882). According to that concept, the constant sequences that unite the phenomena as antecedent and consequent are their laws and all foresight of phenomena depend on knowledge of their sequences, and not upon any notion formed in respect of their origin or nature (Mill, 1882). The doctrine of ‘Positivism’ had been later elaborated in a subsequent work of Auguste Compte, A General View of Positivism, which is credited with defining the empirical goals of sociology (Compte, 1848; Guneriussen, 1996). Compte’s ideas had profoundly inspired the oeuvre of Emile Durkheim, whose works on the methodology of sociology, like The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), are considered a significant example of positivist social science (Guneriussen, 1996). Another descendant of Compte’s mode of thought appears the ‘logical positivism’, or neopositivism, propagated by a group of “scientifically trained philosophers and philosophically interested scientists” known as ‘the Vienna Circle’, whose most prominent protagonists were the mathematician Hans Hahn, the physicist Philipp Frank, and the social scientist Otto Neurath; following the World War I the circle included Moritz Schlick, the philosopher Viktor Kraft, as well as the mathematicians Theodor Radacovic and Gustav Bergmann, and, since 1926, the philosopher and logician Rudolf Carnap (Uebel, 2011). The Principles of Positivism ‘Positivism’ is seen by Auguste Compte as consisted of two inseparable components - “a Philosophy and a Polity”, the first of which being the basis, and second - the end of “one comprehensive system” (1848, p.1). The original fundamental principles of this doctrine, as described by Compte, are as follows (1848, pp. 2- 38): the science of society (sociology) is considered the most important one, which provides the only means of bringing the various observations of phenomena into “one consistent whole”; the philosophy is aimed at presenting a systematic view of human life, including every social and individual aspect, including thoughts, feelings, and actions, which would be a basis of modifying the imperfections if represented naturally existing relations; all subjects necessarily pass through three successive stages – at the beginning is the theological one, which is characterised by spontaneous fictions; it’s followed by the metaphysical stage with prevalence of personified abstractions, and finally, the positive stage sets in, based “upon an exact view of the real facts”; this is considered a general law named ‘the law of Filiation’; the law of Classification deals with the order in which different conceptions pass through each of the aforementioned phases, being determined either by decreasing generality or increasing complexity of the phenomena; in human nature, hence in the Positive science, ‘Affection’ is the preponderant element – over both ‘Reason’ and ‘Activity’; the Heart preponderates over the Intellect (aka the Subjective principle); the proper function of Intellect is the service of Social sympathies the external order of the world, as revealed by science, is the objective basis of the system; ‘morality’ is considered both the link and the line of demarcation between philosophy and politics, which is the most important application of philosophy; human activity is thought to pass through three successive stages – offensive warfare, defensive warfare and industry, which in respective connection with the preponderance of the theological, metaphysical and positive spirit leads to a complete explanation of history; there is a clear distinction between the two classes of laws that exist in the order of nature – the abstract and concrete ones; In brief, according to Halfpenny (1982), there are four senses of the term ‘positivism’, which are thought to have originated in Auguste Compte’s concept – firstly, positivism is seen as a view where the increased knowledge is the main cause of both progress and social stability; secondly, it represents a notion that the true belief could be only based on scientific observations; thirdly, positivism is understood as the unity of sciences; and last but not least, positivism is perceived to be a secular religion of social reform. A particular advance over the theory of Auguste Compte is represented by Spencer’s theory of society; while Compte appears more focused on the subjective nature of the progress of human conceptions, Spencer is seen as more interested in objectivity, or the progress of the external world (Ritzer and Goodman, 2004). Having characterised himself as a positivist, Spencer defined sociology as the study of societal evolution whose ultimate goal is complete harmony and happiness (Ritzer and Goodman, 2004). After Spencer’s theory of evolutionary change, a fifth sense of the term ‘positivism’ has become apparent, namely the competition between differing individuals, who are seen above all as a source of moral law in a given society, leads to progress (Halfpenny, 1982). Compte’s concept was further developed by Durkheim, who, having wrote on methodological issues, asserted that sociology ought to study the society “from the outside”, as an object, rather than based on individual social actors’ subjective views, thus rejecting the role of their perceptions, understanding and motives in the search for chains of causality and function (Guneriussen, 1996). Considering the social facts to be things existing outside (objective existence), independently of individuals, hence forming an inert, stable order that consists of laws, functions and casual relations, Durkheim advocated exploring and discovering the structure and laws of social order by methods similar to the ones of the physicists that discover the laws of nature (Guneriussen, 1996). Emile Durkheim’s modes of explanation, and the so-called ‘casual explanations in particular, which sought regular casual relations between factors and events of a certain period, independent of individuals’ intentions and ideas, or in other words statistical relations between variables, provided another view and meaning of Positivism as being quantification of social data through statistics (Halfpenny, 1982; Guneriussen, 1996). Doctrines that originated amongst the Vienna Circle are thought to have added two more senses of the concept – the verification principle, or the Waisman’s thesis on Wittgenstein's view that the meaning of a proposition is its method of verification through empirical science, as well as the framework-relativity of analytic statements of Schlick and Carnap’s understanding of the syntactical and semantic unification of the sciences (Halfpenny, 1982; Uebel, 2011). Conclusion Having evolved from its original Comptean usage as scientific approach to uncovering the laws dealing with human and physical events, as well as attracting a lot of criticism, Positivism – although mainly understood in terms of methodology, or technical issues of the survey method – is considered nowadays a predominant approach to construction of social research, inasmuch as key principles and features of positivist concept of human knowledge are deeply embedded in the design ideology and practice of the research (Wacquant, 1993). Nevertheless, most contemporary scientists, including British sociologists par excellence, seemed to have been less than enthusiastic about the use of quantitative methods perhaps due to the stigma to being defined as ‘positivists’ (Bryman, 2010). References Compte, Auguste, 1848, A General View of Positivism. Translated from French by J.H. Bridges, 1908, London: George Routledge & Sons ltd [online] Available at [Accessed 10 November 2011] Bryman, Alan, 2010, Research Methods: Quantitative versus Qualitative Methods? In A. Giddens and Philip W. Sutton, eds. 2010. Sociology: Introductory Readings, 3rd ed. Cambridge: Polity Press [online] Available at [Accessed 13 November 2011] Guneriussen, Willy, 1996, Emile Durkheim. In H. Andersen and L. Bo Kaspersen, eds. 2000. Classical and Modern Social Theory. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Inc. [online] Available at [Accessed 12 November 2011] Halfpenny, Peter, 1982, Positivism and Sociology: Explaining Social life. In T.B. Bottomore and M.J. Mulkay, eds. 1982. Controversies in Sociology, series: 13. London: George Allen & Unwin Mill, John Stuart, 1882, Auguste Compte and Positivism, London: George Routledge & Sons [online] Available at < http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=106395774> [Accessed 11 November 2011] Ritzer, George and Douglas J. Goodman, 2004, Classical Sociological Theory, 4th ed. NY: McGraw-Hill Uebel, Thomas, 2011, "Vienna Circle", In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta, ed. [online] Available at http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2011/entries/vienna-circle/ [Accessed 10 November 2011] Wacquant, Loic J.D., 1993, Positivism. In W. Outhwaite, ed. 2003, 2006. The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought, 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Read More