Positivism and study of society

Positivism and study of societyPositivism was named by Auguste Comte in 19th century, which was influenced by early quackery of Enlightenment- with achieve the gulls which include make objective knowledge and formulate the universal laws. The Rationalism also contri provideded incontrovertibleness to im testify the human conditions but not beau ideal (Smith, 2003, p76). Positivism has three development puts after it was mentioned- the early favorableness, the ordered positivism and standard positivism (Smith, 2003, p77). This essay lead discuss the early positivism and synthetic positivism. As a branch of charlatanism, the broader sense of positivism is the true knowledge which should be found on sense experiences, and only can be sophisticated by observation and experiment, avoided all metaphysical or speculation (Urmson, 1960). Anformer(a) definition in this essay which should be introduced is the percentages of positivism. In this essay, contribution meaning the posit ivism how to create knowledge than before but not only focus on whatever positivists theory or the contributions in any specific subject. Positivism affected the studies of society since early 19th century to now although some mass point out positivism is not able for the development of society nowadays (Smith, 2003, p76). In this essay, the contributions of positivism atomic number 18 how the positivism creates knowledge. The orderology of positivism was complete the theory of empiricism in Enlightenment. Based on positivism orderology, the disagreeable(a) system was implemented in study of society by Positivists. The critical evaluation of these contributions result be stated in every section. This essay go forth also state using modern sight to review the contributions of positivism.Early positivism contributed to create a framework of research method and the basic principles of positivism. After early positivism, capital of Austria Circle highly-developed the opinion s and created synthetical positivism. Positivists followed the same thought to watch over truth out no upshot which stage of positivism. All of them had contributions in history.As mentioned above, positivism is a branch of empiricism. Comparing with empiricism in Enlightenment, the biggest contribution of positivism is complete the methodology on empiricism and lead the positivism nearly regard to scientific spirit today (Heidegren, 2006, p92). Through this methodology, new scientific methods will be completed and applied on social science. The ontology of positivism methodology is the world is external and objective, and the observers should be independent and be neutral in the researches (Smith, 2003). infra this situation, the epistemology of positivism is building guessinges and then to find the relationships between limited facts in social phenomena, and formulate universal laws at last (Smith, 2003). Be neutral and objective were positivists insert in the positivism meth odology and affect the whole society.Take an instance for the contribution of neutral and objective in positivism is the positivist approach in criminology. Before the positivism, criminal suspects could prove their own criminal behaviours and this lead some criminal suspects were suffering and had to admit the behaviours which were not existed. However, positivists thought this was not humanistic and criminal suspects should be avoid from evidences, that means the criminal suspects cannot prove their own criminal behaviours (Simon, 2006).However, the contribution of neutral and objective has been forefronted. For display case, legal positivism has begun to be questioned in recent years. Priel pointed out Legal positivism is the thesis that one does not need to rely on evaluative considerations in order to identify what the law is in his essay (2006). He had the question about the validity and content of legal positivism (Priel, 2006).Based on the positivism methodology, early pos itivists completed the scientific methods. As a representative of philosophers in Enlightenment, Bacon created science of method, there were three steps in the scientific method. First, making observations and repeat the observations, which were based on experiments. Secondly, classify the observations. Finally, formulating the observations to laws through inductive think (Porter, 2007, p21-22). Comte and Durkheim inherited the scientific method and completed this scientific method to six steps, 1) make an observation, 2) suggest a question, 3) formulate a hypothesis and except outline, 4) examination the hypothesis through experiment method, 5) to examine the data and 6) formulate a universal law (Cohen el al, 2007). Positivism completed the procedure of scientific method, inserted hypothesis and experiment. Hypothesis in scientific method was the speculations of relationships between factors- the causes and effects (Cohen el al, 2007). The experiment means to make a test in a con trolled artificial environment which had small number of variables, this system was named closed system and which will be discussed later (Smith, 2003).Hypothesis is not only the speculation of the research, but also the key of the research. Positivists mentioned this notion of hypothesis and lead the scientific method to become complete and more validity. Basically, the research is built on hypothesis, no matter in natural science or social science. For example, scientific method is applied in natural science such as biology, chemistry, physics, and other else. In social science, scientific method is also applied widely, such as economy, legal system, psychology and other subjects. Figure 1 is a good example to show the hypothesis has became one of the most important links in economic study.Applying the closed system in social science is another contribution of the early positivism, as the notion of experiment which is mentioned above. Before the positivism, people only applied sci entific method in natural science. Comte and Durkheim believe the social science is similar as natural science and closed system can be applied and the truth and law in social science will be found. This thought provided a model for studying the social science and made people create more knowledge about the society.There are three closures in the closed system- experimental closure, theoretical closure, and statistical closure. Experimental closure is through the experiment methods in an artificial environment to get an data-based purpose (Smith, 2003). This kind of closure is usually applied in psychology and other similar subjects. Theoretical closure is usually building theory models to analyse the relationships between variables (Smith, 2003). Theoretical closure has been applied in economy widely. For example, economists anticipate the trend of national economy through the theory models. The last closure is statistical closure which means finding relationships between differen t variables through quantitative measurable data sets (Smith, 2003). This closure is used in economy, psychology, political science and other subjects widely. For example, customer satisfaction investigation, examination of electoral results and so on.Early positivists let people study and understand society better through applied scientific method and closed system in study of social science and tried to obtain definite objective knowledge. However, some disadvantages are existed when positivists applying scientific method and closed system in study of social science. There are too many other unpredictable variables exist outside of the boundary of closed system which can affect the results (Smith, 2003). In addition, some social variables cannot be measurable such as beliefs and scientific method maybe not equal for this situation (Bryman Bell, 2007). coherent positivism is a development of early positivism and appeared in early 1920s (Smith, 2003). A group of philosophers who h ad informal discussions at the University of Vienna and they were named Vienna Circle (Smith, 2003). The logical positivism was promoted by Vienna Circle, the centre of the logical positivism was still avoid any kind of metaphysics and unsound attempts (Smith, 2003). According to Ganguly (1967), logical positivism is a kind of the empiricism which with a premise that the objects can be verifiable empirically and meaningful. Comparing with early positivism, logical positivism has ambition to all knowledge which cannot be verified (Smith, 2003).One of the contributions of logical positivism is the meaning of the theory should be communicable. Logical positivists proposed achieve this target through synthetic and analytic statement (Ganguly, 1967). Ayer was a famous positivist who contributed much in logical positivism, and he pointed out that the quarrel which was used in science should simple, clear and free from mystification (Ganguly, 1967). Smith pointed out that this proposal l ed many to refer to this new approach as the linguistic move around in the philosophy of the social sciences. (2003)Another contribution of logical positivism is logical positivists provide verifiability principle. Combining with induction in logical positivism, logical positivists believed the existing value-free could be achieved (Ganguly, 1967). Before the logical positivism, researches were based on designers purposes, therefore, the researches would be disturbed by designers opinions although they tried to avoid that. For example, in some marketing satisfaction investigations, the questionnaire will bring researchers subjective and leading the answers. Some theories such as physics theories which cannot be experiment directly should be proved by logic methods. Logical positivists tried to make absolute objective topic and find the real objective truth. Their strict method and serious scientific spirit lead people to treat natural and social sciences carefully, and the real tr uth can be found without any subjective.However, some experts pointed out there are problems on logical positivism. First, the language requirement of logical positivism makes people confuse about the truth. Indeed, it is hard to translate the language because this doctrine defined the language so only (Ritchie, 2009). Secondly, the logical positivists mentioned the knowledge should be verifiable and logical, however, some theories is hard to be proved but people cannot say that is metaphysics (Ritchie, 2009).Positivism contributed so much in history and still influencing the philosophies and study of natural and social sciences today. Positivists provided useful framework in its period and helped people to collect knowledge. Positivism is an extreme philosophy which debate to interpretivism, however, it is the time to combine them together to develop new framework for study of society (Ricciardi, 2009). As mentioned above, some weaknesses are existed when positivists applied scie ntific method and closed system in social sciences and obtained the knowledge, such as some hide variables are ignored by closed system when studying social sciences. Under this situation, the validity of the research will be questioned and it is not follow the principles of positivism. Therefore, new framework or new philosophy should be created to solve this problem and flip the positivism.To sum up, positivism was mentioned in early 19th century, Comte and Durkhaim were the founders of the positivism. The purpose of positivism is finding the absolute objective true knowledge, different stage of positivism followed this thought and tried best to avoid metaphysics and subjective. Early positivists who were influenced by empiricism in Enlightenment and completed the positivism methodology, new completed scientific method was created based on this situation. Early positivists developed the closed system and enhance the development of sciences as well. Furthermore, early positivists applied scientific method and closed system in study of society, this helped people to understand the world better in that period, although some disadvantages were exist, such as some variables in society were ignored. Vienna Circle developed the thoughts and methods in early positivism and created logical positivism. They applied more strict principles to find the objective truth. The most important contributions of logical positivism were using exactly accurate language to describe the theories and verifiable principle. These lead the sciences to be objective and more accurate. However, the weaknesses are still in logical positivism, for example, using exactly language will bring the barriers in communication in different languages. As the development of philosophy and sciences, positivism emerge more and more weakness and will be replaced by other new philosophies. Positivism has depth influence in history and the contributions cannot be eliminated.BibliographyBryman, A. Bell, E. (2007) Business research methods, published by Oxford Oxford University Press, second Ed, 2007Cohen, L., Manion, L. Morrison, K. (2007) The Scientific Method, Research methods in education, published by Routledge, New York, in 2007Ganguly, S. (1967) Logical positivism- as a theory of meaning, published by Allied Publishers closed-door Limited, India, in 1967Heidegren, CG (2006) Positivism before Logical Positivism in Nordic Philosophy, The Vienna Circle in the Nordic Countries, published by Springer, published in 2006Porter, D. (2007) Bacons Method and Coleridges Empiricism, Knowledge broken Empiricist method and the forms of Romanticism, Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, published in 2007Priel, D. (2006) disturbance FOR LEGAL POSITIVISM?, Legal Theory, Published by Cambridge University Press, published in 12/2006, p225-263Ricciardi, F. (2009) Epistemology of Informatio n Systems Time for Something New? Positivism, Interpretivism, and Beyond, Information Systems People, Organizations, Institutions, and Technologies, published on 03/10/2009Ritchie, A. (2009) Errors of Logical Positivism, Philosophy, Vol 12 Issue 45, published in 02/2009Simon, J (2006) Positively Punitive How the Inventor of Scientific Criminology Who Died at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Continues to shop American Crime Control at the Beginning of the Twenty-First, Texas Law Review, Vol 84, Issue 7, published in 06/2006, accessed on 09/03/2010Smith, M. (2003) Social science in question, edited, designed, and typeset by The Open University, published in 1998, reprinted 2002 and 2003Urmson, O. (1960) The concise encyclopedia of western philosophy and philosophers, Urmson, O. edited, publisher HUTCHINSON CO. London