2017•The International Encyclopedia of Communication Research MethodsRequires access
Positivism
Tammy Shapiro
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Abstract
The term “positivism” is used often in the social sciences to characterize research or theory as, variously, quantitative, foundationalist, realist, empiricist, or as excluding interpretative and qualitative methods. However, positivism over the past two centuries has included diverse epistemological stances and methodological practices. This article broadly outlines positivism's developmental trajectory from Comte's naïve empiricism and Enlightenment project to the neopositivism of the logical empiricists associated with the Vienna Circle to the postpositivism of 1950s and 1960s philosophy of science. The various approaches within the positivist framework have fundamentally shaped contemporary philosophy of the social sciences.