define positivism and anti positivism
Answers
Conducting research in social and political science can proceed in a number of methods
depending on different approaches in the philosophy of social science. Positivism, one of the
dominant approaches in social science, is the point of departure of this paper. This section will
provides the basic meaning and characteristics of Positivism as an approach in social science,
and then the next section is going to show other approaches which are non-Positivist tradition.
Contrasting to the Positivism approach, Non-Positivism, such as Realism and Interpretive,
does not believe in the absolute scientific mode of inquiry and explanation, rather, Realism and
Interpretive approaches pay their attention to the factors that Positivism tend to ignore, for
instance, the social structure and value-led interpretive method.
Conducting research in social and political science can proceed in a number of methods
depending on different approaches in the philosophy of social science. Positivism, one of the
dominant approaches in social science, is the point of departure of this paper. This section will
provides the basic meaning and characteristics of Positivism as an approach in social science,
and then the next section is going to show other approaches which are non-Positivist tradition.
Contrasting to the Positivism approach, Non-Positivism, such as Realism and Interpretive,
does not believe in the absolute scientific mode of inquiry and explanation, rather, Realism and
Interpretive approaches pay their attention to the factors that Positivism tend to ignore, for