What are the shorfalls of positivist philosophy that gave rise to the non-positivist methods of studying social reality?. (UPSC CSE Mains 2022 - Sociology, Paper 1)
Comte''s vision for sociology was for it to become a ''positive science''. He wanted sociology to apply the same rigorous scientific methods to the study of society that physicists and chemists use to study the physical world. Positivism holds that science should be concerned only with observable entities that are known directly to experience. On the basis of careful observations, one can infer laws that explain the relationship between the observed phenomena. By understanding the causal relationships between events, scientists can then predict how future events will occur. A positivist approach to sociology aims for the production of knowledge about society based on empirical evidence drawn from observation, comparison and experimentation.
Shortfalls of positivist philosophy
- Positivist approach failed on the parameters of objectivity, quantifiability, universal testability and inter-subjective reliability.
- Comte’s positivism was criticized both from within and outside the positivist domain. Within positivism, a branch called logical positivism was developed in early twentieth century which claimed that science is both logical and also based on observable facts and that the truth of any statement lies in its verification through sensory experience.
- Deductive approach is less fruitful in Sociology and inductive approach would be more helpful as it is very difficult to collect facts about abstract phenomena.
- Alfred Schultz contends that humans construct their world through common sense, ethical values, assumptions and perceptions. Sociologist should not disregard this while undertaking research.
- Habermas criticises that positivism loses sight of the actors reducing them to passive entities determined by natural forces.
- Schools of thought like symbolic interactionism, phenomenology and ethnomethodology, etc. questioned the positivist methodology and its perception of social reality.
- Interpretivists, or anti-positivists argue that individuals are not just puppets who react to external social forces as Positivists believe. Interpretivists argue that in order to understand human action we need to achieve ‘Verstehen‘, or empathetic understanding – we need to see the world through the eyes of the actors doing the acting.
- Interactionist Mead, Cooley, Blumer - Actions and Interactions result in Social Actions Criticism
- Phenomenonologist Peter Berger, Schutz - Generalisations not possible. Positivism is not concerned with Sociology but is concerned with making Science out of Sociology Social realities are made, dismantled and remade
- Ethnomethodologists Garfinkel - Reality be studied from People’s perspective and not Researcher’s perspective.
- Alvin Gouldner - Reflexive Sociology - individual reflects on his/her own actions.
- RK Merton - Criticised for their over-emphasis on universalism. Suggested using Middle-Ranged theories
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