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LECTURE NOTES ON POSITIVISM & EMPIRICISM

Module: AT10503 Pengantar Ilmu Saintifik
Session 1, 2019/2020

DR. MD SAYED UDDIN

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 August Comte (1798-1857):

 Positivism arose from a nineteenth-century school of thought by the
Frenchman who founded sociology – August Comte.
 August Comte was the first to use the term sociology to describe a new way of
looking at society. He developed social physics, or what in 1839 he called
sociology. The use of the term social physics made it clear Comte sought to
model sociology after the “hard sciences.”

 He developed his scientific view, “positivism,” or “positive philosophy,” to

combat what he considered to be the negative and destructive philosophy of the
Enlightenment.
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 August Comte’s approach – his evolutionary theory, or the law of three stages.
 The theory processes that there are three intellectual stages through which the
world has gone throughout its history.
 According to Comte, not only does the world go through this process, but
groups, societies, sciences, individuals, and even minds go through the same
three stages.
 The theological stage is the first, and it characterized the world prior to 1300.
During this period, the major idea system emphasized the belief that
supernatural powers and religious figures, modeled after humankind, are at the
root of everything. In particular, the social and physical world is seen as
produced by God.
 In sum, from the beginning of the human history to the end of the European
Middle Ages about 1350/1300 , people took a religious view that society
expressed God’s will.
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 The second stage is the metaphysical stage, which occurred roughly between
1300 and 1800. This era was characterized by the belief that abstract forces like
“nature,” rather than personalized gods, explain virtually everything.

 With the dawn of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century, the theological
approach gave way to a metaphysical stage of history in which people saw
society as a natural rather than a supernatural system.
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 For example,

• In the theological • In the metaphysical

stage of physics, stage of a science,
objects moves the gods, spirits, and
Theological stage

Metaphysical stage
becausegods push so on are no longer
them around; and in in play, and their
the theological stage role is taken by
of biology, human forces; in the
beings alive because metaphysical stage
God has breathed of physics, objects
life into them, or move because forces
invested them with push them, and in
an immaterial soul. the metaphysical
stage of biology, life
is explained by a
vital force.
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 Finally, in 1800 the world entered the positivistic stage, characterized by belief
in science.
 What Comte called the Scientific stage of history began with the work of early
scientists such as the Polish astronomer Copernicus (1473-1543), the Italian
astronomer and physicist Galileo (1564-1642), and the English physicist and
mathematician Isaac Newton (142-1727). Comte contribution came in applying
the scientific approach – first used to study the physical world – to study of the
society.
 Comte’s approach is called positivism, a way of understanding based on
science. As a positivist, Comte believed that society operates according to its
own laws, much as the physical world operates according to gravity and other
laws of nature.
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 People now tended to give up the search for absolute causes (God or nature)
and concentrated instead on observation of the social and physical world in the
search for the laws governing them.
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 It is clear that in his theory of the world Comte focused on intellectual factors.
Indeed, he argued that intellectual disorder is the cause of social
disorder.
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 Positivist researchers prefer precise quantitative data

and often use experiments, surveys, and statistics.
 Many applied researchers (administrators,
criminologists, market researchers, policy analysts,
program evaluators, and planners) embrace
positivism.
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 Positivism says that “there is only one logic of science, to

which any intellectual activity aspiring to the title of
‘science’ must conform”. Thus, the social sciences and the
natural sciences must use the same method.
 In this view, differences between the natural and social
sciences are due to the immaturity or youth of the social
sciences and their subject matter. Eventually, all science,
including the social sciences, will be like the most advanced
science, physics.
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 Differences among the sciences may exit as to their subject

matter, but all sciences share a common set of principles
and logic.
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 Where do social/political values enter into science?

 Positivists argue for a value-free science that is objective.
There are two meanings of the term objective: that
observers agree on what they see and that science is not
based on values, opinions, attitudes, or beliefs.
 Positivists see science as special, distinctive part of society
that is free of personal, political, or religious values.
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 Empiricism is an ism with many meanings.

 Empiricism is a theory which states that knowledge comes only or primarily
from sensory experience. One of several views of epistemology, the study of
human knowledge, along with rationalism and scepticism, empiricism
emphasizes the role of experience and evidence, especially sensory experience.
 Empiricism is often contrasted with rationalism.
 Empiricists emphasize the role of sense experience, rationalists the role of
reason.
 Empiricism – claims that sense experience is the only source of knowledge.
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 The term “empirical” (rather than “empiricism”) also refers to the method of
observation and experiment used in the natural and social sciences.
 It is a fundamental requirement of the scientific method that all hypotheses
and theories must be tested against observations of the natural world, rather
than resting solely on a priori reasoning, intuition or revelation.
 Hence, science is considered to be methodologically empirical in nature.
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• For an empiricist, if a theory is

logically consistent, observations
are the only source of
information about whether the
theory is empirically adequate.
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• As the word is used by scientists, the category of ‘observable’ things is

Observation

far broader than the list of things that can be seen, heard, tasted,
smelled or touched.
• For example, - in a laboratory context – does not generally mean
simply bringing the sense organs into play. It is true that when the
chemistry teacher asks the pupils to observe the ‘red fumes’ in the gas
jar, then the process of observation called for is indeed close to that of
attentive looking. Distraction, haste, inattention, etc. would all
produce failure, while due care and normal eyesight would usually
guarantee success, though not necessarily a uniform verbal description
of what is seen. Here the word ‘observation’ does mean something
close to deployment of the sense of organs.
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 THE BRITISH EMPIRICISTS:

 In the 17th and 18th Century, the members of the British
Empiricism school John Locke, George Berkeley and David
Hume were the primary exponents of Empiricism. They vigorously
defended Empiricism against the Rationalism (the position of
knowledge best produced by reasoning) of Descartes, Leibniz and
Spinoza.

? Which of the following philosophers was from the British Empiricism

school………
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 Empiricists claim that sense experience is the

ultimate source of all our concepts and knowledge.
 It rivals rationalism according to which
reason is the ultimate source of knowledge.
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 Empiricism:
 Empirical belief is a belief that we can find through the uses of our five senses.
It means we can judge through our five senses (smell, touch, seeing, taste and
earing) and this is called empiricism.
 Descartes came up with counter argument that sometimes our all senses can
misguide us. For example: sometimes our vision, our taste in illness, even
voices like some voices that are not there can misguide us. This was the
problems with empiricism.
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 Rationalism Vs. Empiricism

• Rationalist: • Empiricist:

Empiricism
Rationalism

Belief that belief that

reason is the sense
most reliable experience is
source of the most
knowledge. reliable
For example: source of
‘Existence of knowledge.
God”.
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 Tabula Rasa
 This concept is given by John Locke. The term ‘Tabula Rasa’ means
blank slate. We born knowing nothing. We are born with a blank slate
and all are knowledge comes to us through sense data.

 As Plato bought the concept of essentialism against empiricism that we

are born with some coded data and it is in our essence. How do we
know about right and wrong? It is taught and pre-coded in genetics by
God or nature. We named it as essentialism.
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 ARISTOTLE:
 Like Plato, Aristotle believed that knowledge
necessarily involves general or universal ideas –
man, dog, table, chair, etc.
 Aristotle believed that our knowledge of the general
comes from our experience of particular men, tables,
chairs, dogs, oceans etc.
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 What does good evidence or factual information look like?

 Empirical facts exist apart from personal ideas or thoughts.
We can observe them by using our sense organs (eyesight,
smell, hearing, touch) or special instruments that extend
the senses (e.g., telescopes, microscopes).
 References
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 Stathis P illos & Martin Curd. (200). The Routledge Companion To Philosophy
of Science. New York, USA: Routledge. Pp. 129-138.

 W. Lawrence Neuman (1997). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and

Quantitative Approaches. third edition. United States of America: Allyn &
Bacon. Pp. 63– 67.

 John J. Macionis. (2008). Sociology. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

pp.13-14.

 Barry Barnes, David Bloor & John Henry. (1996). Scientific Knwoledge: A
Sociological Analyis. London: The ATHLONE Press. Pp.1-17.