Positivism and Logical Positivism: Meaning and Key Concepts
On the one hand, positivism is construed more broadly as a way of looking at the world
from the vantage point of scientific method.
As a philosophical doctrine, positivism holds the belief that only those objects or events
that can be experienced directly should be the object of scientific inquiry. This means
that for the positivists, there are facts about the human world which are objectively true
and that they can be discovered and understood through a scientific method. This
explains why the positivists consciously avoid metaphysical speculations, such as
questions regarding the nature of God, freedom, and the immortality of the soul.
The French philosopher Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte, or simply Auguste
Comte, was considered the Father of Positivism. Comte was also considered as the
founder of sociology and the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the
word.
Comte argues that observation and experiment are the principal means in the search for
truth. In fact, Comte based his philosophy on the idea that intellectual disciplines
progress only to the degree that it is grounded in experience and observable
facts. According to Anatol Rapoport, Comte’s positivism seeks to describe only the
obviousꟷwhat one can really be positiveꟷthat is, sense data. For example, as Rapoport
explains, if a positivist sees a black sheep in the meadow, she will not say “There is a
black sheep in the meadow”. Rather, she will say “I see a sheep in the meadow one side
of which is black”. (Anatol Rapoport, Operational Philosophy: Integrating Knowledge
and Action. New York: Harper & Bros., 1953)
On the other hand, logical positivism is the direct result of the revision of positivism
through the years. As we may already know, the positivism of Auguste Comte and Ernst
Mach dealt only with phenomena that are directly observable. By the early 20th century,
this position was viewed as unrealistic by many scholars. Scientists during the early 20th
century had made major studies on theoretical concepts that are not directly
observable, such as gravity, magnetism, atoms, force, and electrons. Hence, scholars
had to find a way for science to account for these entities through the employment of a
theory without running the risk of falling into the pit of metaphysical speculation. The
solution to this problem was provided by logical positivism.
The logical positivists then divided science into two major parts, namely, the empirical
and the theoretical. Thus, logical positivism wedded together empiricism and
On the one hand, positivism is construed more broadly as a way of looking at the world
from the vantage point of scientific method.
As a philosophical doctrine, positivism holds the belief that only those objects or events
that can be experienced directly should be the object of scientific inquiry. This means
that for the positivists, there are facts about the human world which are objectively true
and that they can be discovered and understood through a scientific method. This
explains why the positivists consciously avoid metaphysical speculations, such as
questions regarding the nature of God, freedom, and the immortality of the soul.
The French philosopher Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte, or simply Auguste
Comte, was considered the Father of Positivism. Comte was also considered as the
founder of sociology and the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the
word.
Comte argues that observation and experiment are the principal means in the search for
truth. In fact, Comte based his philosophy on the idea that intellectual disciplines
progress only to the degree that it is grounded in experience and observable
facts. According to Anatol Rapoport, Comte’s positivism seeks to describe only the
obviousꟷwhat one can really be positiveꟷthat is, sense data. For example, as Rapoport
explains, if a positivist sees a black sheep in the meadow, she will not say “There is a
black sheep in the meadow”. Rather, she will say “I see a sheep in the meadow one side
of which is black”. (Anatol Rapoport, Operational Philosophy: Integrating Knowledge
and Action. New York: Harper & Bros., 1953)
On the other hand, logical positivism is the direct result of the revision of positivism
through the years. As we may already know, the positivism of Auguste Comte and Ernst
Mach dealt only with phenomena that are directly observable. By the early 20th century,
this position was viewed as unrealistic by many scholars. Scientists during the early 20th
century had made major studies on theoretical concepts that are not directly
observable, such as gravity, magnetism, atoms, force, and electrons. Hence, scholars
had to find a way for science to account for these entities through the employment of a
theory without running the risk of falling into the pit of metaphysical speculation. The
solution to this problem was provided by logical positivism.
The logical positivists then divided science into two major parts, namely, the empirical
and the theoretical. Thus, logical positivism wedded together empiricism and
