User:Ragesoss/Positivism

Positivism was a scientific movement defined by the scientific method as the sole means of obtaining knowledge. Auguste Comte, a writer and philosopher, theorized that knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method.

Positivism has had different definitions according to the time period it has been used to describe. To define the movement of Positivism from the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century we must first define the philosophy of the time and the specific details that deal with this scientific movement. Because of the importance of the scientific method in the philosophy, the use of observation, possibility of replication, measurement, and logic were an intricate part of the way scientists of the time conducted their work. This view is sometimes referred to as a scientist ideology is often shared by technocrats who believe in the necessity for scientific progress. Although Positivism can be defined by the use of the scientific movement, the principles were more than just technical but, rather, moral. The positivist believed in empiricism -- the idea that observation and measurement were the central idea of the scientific endeavor. Positivism is, thus, a philosophy about how things should be.

Auguste Comte, the philosophical writer, coined the term “Positive Philosophy.” Comte’s writings expressed a hierarchical view of human knowledge and the logic of the scientific method. His views of human knowledge, and specifically an scientific knowledge, can be viewed historically through his threes successive phases of thought. These stages are the “Theological Phase,” the “Metaphysical Phase,” and the “Positive Phase.” Comte’s reasoning for the progression of these different disciplines is due his belief that they are governed by one simple principle – the areas of study that are develop first are the ones that man do not understand. The progression of the sciences in the sciences shows how man tries to understand the world around him and then uses that understanding for the betterment of human society.

The complexity of Comte’s idea on the subject of Positivism is baffling due to the ease in which he organizes his schemes. His work, which later exemplified the views on the nature of science that ruled nineteenth-century thought, led to the reasoning that all scientific knowledge should be the accepted truth in terms of knowledge. Science, at this time, exemplified his thought process because it was valued as a means to find solutions to the different problems facing the human race. Positivism in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century proved to be a way for science to advance the development of mankind and its many problems.

The Three Phases of Society

According to Auguste Comte the father of Positivism society undergoes three different phases in its quest for the truth. These three phases are the Theological, the Metaphysical and the Positive Phases.

The Theological Phase of man is based on whole-hearted belief in all things with reference to God. God, he says, had reigned supreme over human existence pre-Enlightenment. Man’s place in society was governed by his association with the divine presences and with the church that governed all. The Theological Phase deals with mankind accepting the doctrines of the church and not questioning the world. It dealt with the restrictions put in place by the religious organization at the time and the total acceptance of any “fact” placed forth for society to believe.

Comte describes the Metaphysical Phase of man as the time since the Enlightenment, a time steeped in logical rationalism, to the time after right the French Revolution. This second phase states that the universal rights of man are most important. The idea that man is born with certain rights, that should and cannot be taken away, that must be respected and central at its heart. With this in mind democracies and dictators rose and fell in attempt to maintain the innate rights of man.

The final stage of the trilogy of Comte’s universal law is the Scientific, or Positive Stage. The central idea of this phase is the idea that individual rights are more important than the rule of any one person. Comte stated the idea that man is able to govern himself is what makes this stage innately different from the rest. There is no higher power governing the masses and the intrigue of any one person than the idea that he can achieve anything based on his individual free will and authority. It is third principle that is is what is most important in the positive stage.

These three phases are what Comte calls the Universal Rule – in relation to society and its development. Neither the second nor the third phase can be reached without the completion and understanding of the preceding stage. All stages must be completed in progress.

The irony of this series of phases is that though Comte attempted to prove that human development has to go through these three stages it seems that the Positivist stage is far from becoming a realization. This is due to two truths. The Positivist Phase requires having complete understanding of the universe and world around us and requires that society should never know if it is in this Positivist Phase. Some may argue that the Positivist phase could not t be reached unless one were God thus reverting to the first and initial phase or argue that man is constantly using science to discover and research new things leading one back to the second Metaphysical Phase. Thus, some believe Comte’s Positivism to be circular.

Other Positive Thinkers

Though Comte was the father of Positivism, his ideas of Positivism became something that intrgued many. Within years of his book A General View Of Positivism(1856) other scientific and philosophical thinkers began creatig their own definitions for Positivism. They included Emile Hennequin, Wilhelm Scherer, and Dmitrii Pisarev.

Emile Hennequin, was a Parisian publiste,writer, who wrote on theoretical and critical pieces. He was a man that who, " exemplified the tension between the positivist drive to sypsteize literary criticism and the unfettered imagination inherent in literature". He is a brilliant in his approach to Positivism because he is one of the few thinkers that disagrees with the notion that subjectivity invalidates observation, judements and predicitions. Unlike many Positivist thinkers before him he cannot agree that subjectivity does not play a role in science or any other form in society. His contirbution to Positivism is not one of science and its ojectivity but rather the subjectivity of art and the way the artist, work, and audience view eachother. Hennequin tried to analyze Positivism strictyl on the predictions, and the mechanial processes, but was perplexed due to the contradictions of the reactions of patrons to artwork that showed no scientific inclinations.

Wilhelm Scherer, was a German philologist, a university professor, and a popular literary historian. He was known as a Positivist due to he based much of his worked on "hypotheses on detailed historical research, and rooted every literary phenmenon in 'objective' historical or philological facts". His positivism is different due to his involvement with his nationalist goals. Because of this his thoughts are more imaginative and creative than most thinkers of the time. His amjor contribution to the movement was his speculation that culture cycled in a six-hundred-year period.

Dimitri Pisarev was a Russian, publiste, shows the greatest contridictions with his belief in Positivism. His ideas focused around a imagination and style though he does nto beleive in romantic ideasbecause it reminds him of the tsarist oppressive governemnt he lives in. His basic beliefs were "an extreme anti-esthetic scientistic position". His efforts were focused on defining the relation between literature and the environment.

Key Aspects of Positivism

Though there have been many different Positivist thinkers, there are key central aspects of the movement that must be mentioned when one speaks of Positivism. Most are derived from the Comteian philosphy. Though all the aspects were not held by all Positivists the majority mentioned below are and were the basic beliefs by Positivists during the late 1800's and early twentieth century.

1. A focus on science as a consortium of different factual basd arguements from the past influencing the future.
2. An insistence on at least some of these statements’ being testable, that is amenable to being verified, confirmed, or falsified by the empirical observation of reality- use of a scientific method
3. The belief that science is a progression of ideas that must look at its past to move forward
4. The belief that science is the direct result of reasearch of someone who knows social phenomena
5. The belief that science contains theories or research traditions that can be measured through the uses od a scientific method
6. The belief that science progress forward by sometimes providing new and better "truths" that replace old ideas.
7. The belief that science involves the idea of the unity of science, that there is, underlying the various scientific disciplines, basically one science about one real world.:

Age of Positivism

The time period from the late nineteenth century to the period preceding World War I can be considered the age of Positivism because of the scientific ideology that was presented by the different scientists and researchers. Positivism during this time period concerned the quest to apply science to everyday life.

Positivism was preceded by the Age of Romanticism,a social movement that focused on the importance of feeling and expressing ones self, a movement with the concern of objectifying and viewing the world as it was. Just as Romanticism was a backlash to the Enlightenment so was Positivism to Romanticism. The Romantics emphasized the need for imagination and creativity coupled with the use of intellect to reach their goals. Positivism was able to use the best of both Enlightenment and Romantic thought. Positivism meshed the idea of reason and scientific understanding in an effort to understand and better the world.

With the end of the Napoleonic Era and the conclusion of the Crimean Wars, science became more geared to the betterment of the common people. A mere fifty years after the thoughts and ideas of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke had engrained themselves in the minds of commoners, science was used to better the lives of everyone more-so than in any time before. This period is what we now call Positivism.

Positivism dominated the Western World from the 1860’s to the middle to the end of World War I when science transitioned into an Age of Modernism. Positivism is not an age talked about frequently, but it can be expressed through the scientific advancement and the imagery we all have of the grandeur of the turn of the nineteenth century. It represents a time when the world transitioned into a Modernist Age from an age less contemporary than our own.

Scientific Advancements and Thinkers

Comte believed that the appreciation of the past and the ability to build on it towards the future was key in transitioning from the theological and metaphysical phases. The idea of progress was central to Comte's new science, Sociology. Sociology would "lead to the historical consideration of every science" because "the history of one science, including pure political history, would make no sense unless it were attached to the study of the general progress of all of humanity". As Comte would say, "from science comes prediction; from predicition comes action".

From the 1860’s to the time preceding the end of World War I scientific thinkers such as Gregor Mendel, William Crookes, Josiah Gibbs, J.J. Thomson, Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr played a major role in scientific advancements in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Through their use of scientific study the inventors of the Age of Positivism were able to read and study their work in an effort to better the world around them.

Starting in the 1860’s inventions such as the pasteurization, dynamite, the air break and the vacuum cleaner made their debut. The 1870’s followed with advancement such as railways, the adding machine ( – precursor to the computer), modern direct electrical current, cathode ray tubes (– eventually made into televisions and computer screens), and microphones. In the 1880’s inventions included photograph film, seismograph, motorcycles and cars and most importantly the idea of the modern light bulb. Radio transmission, wireless networks, color photography, and the electric stove followed in the 1890’s. The turn of the twentieth century followed with advancement without compare. Stainless steel, Pyrex, the radio telephone, and Sonar all came about during the twentieth century.

Though the influence of Comte on these scientific thinkers is not clarifiable, Comte tried to relate "society to natural phenomena" and worried that scientists that did not study society would not be able to "apply the positive method to social phenomena". The work of the scientists was highly important in the development of all these inventions. The understanding of molecules, chemical bonding, electricity, and physics all played a part in the advancements made. Comte's ideas of Positivism are apparent because the sciences are influenced by the needs of society for scientific applications to applied to their lives. The use of science to create things that would better the everyday world is what made Positivism a scientific movement of the people.

References

• Comte, Auguste. General View of Positivism (1830-42). “A General View of Positivism” translated by J H Bridges, Robert Speller and Sons, 1957; <http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/comte/1856/general-view.htm>.

• Evertt, Glenn. “Comte and Positivism”. The Victorian Web. October 2002. < http://www.victorianweb.org/philosophy/comte.html.

• Giddens, Anthony. “Positivism and Sociology”. Heinemann. London. 1974.

• LeGouis, Catherine. “Positivism and Imagination: Scientism and Its Limits in Emile Hennequin, Wilhelm Scherer and Dmitril Pisarev”. Bucknell University Press. London: 1997.

• Mill, John Stuart. “August Comte and Positivism”. web-books.com <http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Nonfiction/Philosophy/Mill_Comte/Home.htm>.

• Mises, Richard von. Positivism: A Study In Human Understanding. Harvard University Press. Cambridge; Massachusets: 1951.

• Neyhouse, Theresa J. “Positivism In Criminal Thought: A Study in the History and Use of Ideas”. LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, New York: 2002.

• Pickering, Mary. "Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography". Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, Enlgand; 1993.

• Unknown Author. “Famous Inventions”. Indianchild.com, 2004. < http://www.indianchild.com/inventions.htm>

External links

• http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/help/mach1.htm

• http://www.radicalacademy.com/adiphilpositivism.htm

• http://changingminds.org/explanations/research/philosophies/positivism.htm

• http://www.vivboard.net/doc/n0031.htm

• http://www.db.dk/jni/Lifeboat/Positions/Positivism.htm

• http://www.timelinescience.org/years/1900.htm