Question

essay on positivist Approach on 200 words pliz​

Answer 1

Explanation:

Scientific methodology in sociology, the study of the social world, is most often associated with what is known as the positivist approach. In this essay, to determine whether or not it is indeed possible to apply scientific methods to the study of the social world, I will analyse the strengths and weaknesses of positivist sociology. “As developed by Auguste Comte, positivism is a way of thinking based on the assumption that it is possible to observe social life and establish reliable, valid knowledge about how it works.” (Johnson p231) This established knowledge was then to be used to affect the course of social change and it would help improve humanity. Comte’s work was in part a reaction to the ‘anarchy’ that besieged France in the wake of the revolution. Comte sincerely believed that scientific rationality could temper the raw human emotions that had lead to such chaos. Sociology, in his definition (and others), literally the science of society, could apply such scientific rationalism, empiricism and positivism to social life, thus improving it and preventing continued anarchy. “Comte believed that social life is governed by underlying laws and principles that can be discovered through the use of methods most often associated with the physical sciences.” (Johnson p231) One would identify the methods of positivism thus;

1) careful observation – measurement;

2) quantification;

3) formalisation of concepts – precision in definition;

4) operationalisation of theoretical questions

5) mathematisation (connects with all of the previous features;

6) logic and systemisation of theory

7) symmetry of explanation & prediction;

8) objectivity understood as value neutrality

Answer 2

In defence of the school of legal positivism Introduction Legal positivism is a legal philosophy or thought advocating for the written rules of law to be only the source of law. The implication hereof is that in the interpretation of any text of law recourse should be sought in the wording of that very same law or text to be interpreted. In our view, this is a sound philosophy because it promotes and maintains legal certainty by basing the interpretation of law on known and written rules, rather

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