Critical Aspect of Positivism in Social Sciences

There are two positions of using positivism in social sciences. One set of people claims that positivism can be used in social sciences. But there is an opposite opinion which says that positivism cannot be studied in social sciences. However, the criticisms of positivism in the context of social sciences can be listed as following. 

Reductionism 

Most of the sociologists have reduced everything into fact and values. Comte and Durkheim reduced everything into facts whereas Weber emphasized the prominence of values. Weber had an intellectual combat with Comte and Durkheim because of the complete rejection of values. It is true that facts are quantifiable and values cannot be quantifiable. However, the prominence of values cannot ignore only because they cannot be quantified. He defined sociology as the ‘study of social action’. Even Durkheim was criticized for the over emphasis on the concept of fact. And he was criticized for reducing live values into relatively dead social facts (E.g.:- Suicide). 

The question that arises in this context is whether entities of one variety are able to be reduced to another variety. Data can be reduced to numbers, illustrations, diagrams, models, charts etc. But this is only possible with the physical phenomena. It is very difficult to reduce social data into numbers, illustrations, diagrams etc. According to Max Horkeimer human social action is derived by history, culture and belief pattern. Therefore, if a social fact is reduced to a fact, then it becomes a wrong depiction. 

Philosophers went against positivism 

Whilst on the surface Marx’s approach seems to support the positivist approach as it has admired the unity of science, casual laws and empiricism. But Marx is not a positivist. Marx was a dialectician. Therefore, no dialectician can become a positivist. V.I.Lenin wrote Materialism and Empirico-criticism in 1909. 

Khun’s argument 

Kuhn claims that positivism is not a gateway to science, but it becomes an ideology. In his book; The Structure of Scientific Revolution (1962), he argues that science does not progress through a linear process of new knowledge, but the scientific fields undergo a periodic paradigm shifts. These paradigm shifts open new approaches that the scientists would never have understood as valid earlier. Kuhn rejected the positivist idea of using a linear method when deriving new knowledge. 

Value neutrality 

In social science, it studies the society as a whole and therefore, studies the values that are embedded in it. It is impossible to exclude values from social sciences. There are two types of values; ethical values and aesthetic values. In the context of ethical values, it discusses the good, bad, write and wrong things which are accepted by the society. There are theories to explain these things. It is impossible to exclude these value judgments. But, positivism ignores the importance of value judgments. However, when we refer the historical progress of science it is possible to identify that even in the context of scientific discipline, value judgments have been used. Once there was the Ptolemaic model of planetary motion which can be defined as a view of the universe in which the earth was at the center (geo-centric), up until Copernicus. Copernicus made a claim of the cosmos by revolving the earth form the center of the universe and placed heavenly bodies in revolving around the sun. He also introduced the theory of the daily rotation of the earth in its own axis. Copernicus’ view of helio-centric model was valued against Ptolemaic model. As such, the theories in science have been subjected to value judgments. Therefore, positivists did a mistake by excluding values. 

The views of Frankfurt School

Frankfurt school is a school of social theory and critical philosophy. They were critical towards positivism. The following is a comparative analysis of the views of Frankfurt school of thought towards positivism. 

Positivism

-Describe the world/ physical phenomena

-Concern about facts

-Structure + Causal relationships

-Causes and effects

-Knowledge is derived from theoretical assertions

-Theories are base on natural sciences

Frankfurt School of Thought (Critical theory)

-Aims to change the world instead of describing the world

-‘How facts suppress both the individual and the Community’

-How people see the world

       -Within the structure of the society, there are wrong ideologies. 

   -Legalizing those ideologies was criticized. 

-Causes, results and morality (ends)

-Liberate human beings from the conditions that enslave them.

-Methodologies, societies, and ideologies are against to the history

-Observed world separates the human being

Conclusion

Positivism has used mostly in natural sciences. However, when it was used in social sciences, the approach of Comte and Durkheim were subjected to criticisms. As it has discussed above positivism itself has subjected to criticisms. Positivism introduces a linear process that should be followed when doing the researches/ experiments. However, in the history of science many of the inventions have invented with sudden attempts or by mistakes. Different types of experiments have to follow a unique method. It might not be applied to other experiments. Therefore, giving a particular method to follow will be useless. 

Bibliography

Abraham, F., & Morgan, H. J. (1985). Sociological Thought from Comte to Sorokin. Madras: Macmillan India Limited .

Wittgenstein, L. (1922). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, trubner & Co. Ltd.