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Positivism & Post-Positivism

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Saved by 6 people (-6 private), first by anonymouse user on 2008-01-14


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epistemology is the philosophy of knowledge or of how we come to know

Highlighted by ortizgolden

Methodology is focused on the specific ways -- the methods -- that we can use to try to understand our world better.

Highlighted by ortizgolden

A lot of our stereotypes about science come from a period where science was dominated by a particular philosophy -- positivism

Highlighted by ortizgolden

positivism is a rejection of metaphysics

Highlighted by ortizgolden

It is a position that holds that the goal of knowledge is simply to describe the phenomena that we experience. The purpose of science is simply to stick to what we can observe and measure

Highlighted by econor

goal of knowledge is simply to describe the phenomena that we experience

Highlighted by ortizgolden

he purpose of science is simply to stick to what we can observe and measure.

Highlighted by ortizgolden

behaviorists in mid-20th Century psychology. These were the mythical 'rat runners' who believed that psychology could only study what could be directly observed and measured

Highlighted by econor

B.F. Skinner argued that psychology needed to concentrate only on the positive and negative reinforcers of behavior in order to predict how people will behave

Highlighted by econor

B.F. Skinner argued that psychology needed to concentrate only on the positive and negative reinforcers of behavior in order to predict how people will behave -- everything else in between (like what the person is thinking) is irrelevant because it can't be measured.

Highlighted by ortizgolden

The positivist believed in empiricism -- the idea that observation and measurement was the core of the scientific endeavor.

Highlighted by ortizgolden

A post-positivist might begin by recognizing that the way scientists think and work and the way we think in our everyday life are not distinctly different. Scientific reasoning and common sense reasoning are essentially the same process.

Highlighted by ortizgolden

A post-positivist might begin by recognizing that the way scientists think and work and the way we think in our everyday life are not distinctly different. Scientific reasoning and common sense reasoning are essentially the same process

Highlighted by econor

The difference is that the post-positivist critical realist recognizes that all observation is fallible and has error and that all theory is revisable. In other words, the critical realist is critical of our ability to know reality with certainty.

Highlighted by mendobiz

he difference is that the post-positivist critical realist recognizes that all observation is fallible and has error and that all theory is revisable

Highlighted by ortizgolden

the post-positivist critical realist recognizes that all observation is fallible and has error and that all theory is revisable

Highlighted by econor

Because all measurement is fallible, the post-positivist emphasizes the importance of multiple measures and observations, each of which may possess different types of error, and the need to use triangulation across these multiple errorful sources to try to get a better bead on what's happening in reality.

Highlighted by mendobiz

Most post-positivists are constructivists who believe that we each construct our view of the world based on our perceptions of it. Because perception and observation is fallible, our constructions must be imperfect.

Highlighted by mendobiz

Post-positivists reject the idea that any individual can see the world perfectly as it really is. We are all biased and all of our observations are affected (theory-laden). Our best hope for achieving objectivity is to triangulate across multiple fallible perspectives! Thus, objectivity is not the characteristic of an individual, it is inherently a social phenomenon.

Highlighted by mendobiz

Highlighted by akieser

rly, all of this stuff is not for the faint-of-heart. I've seen many a graduate student get lost in the maze of philosophical assumptions that contemporary philoso

Highlighted by akieser