positivism

• positivism

  the founding fathers of sociology believe it is possible to apply the logic and methods of natural sciences to sociology to provide objective knowledge. a key belief is that reality is independent to the human mind ~

  • nature is made of objective and observable facts
  • society is an objective factual reality
• patterns, laws and inductive reasoning

  for positivists reality is patterned rather than chaotic and we can observe empirical regularities

  • durkehim - 'the real laws are discoverable' and positivists believe they can discover the laws that govern how society works
  • induction - accumulating data about the world through careful observation, and beginning to see patterns as knowledge grows
• verificationism

  verificationism - after induction we can claim to have discovered the truth through general laws, and prove that they are true

  • for positivists the pattern in society can be explained in the same way, so they seek to establish the causes of the patterns they witness to predict future events and guide social policy
• objective quantitative research

  positivists believe that as far as possible sociology should use the experimental method as a model for research as it allows hypotheses to be tested systematically

  • use quantitative data to uncover patterns of behaviour and produce mathematically precise statements about relationships being investigated
  • researchers should be detached and objective
  • there is a danger the researcher may contaminate the research, so positivists prefer methods that allow complete detachment like questionnaires and experiments
• positivism and suicide

  durkehim - claimed to have discovered a real law in his study 'le suicide' by concluding through official statistics about religion and suicide that catholicism was more integrating and so had a lower suicide rate