Positivism vs. Interpretivism

Positivismnoun

(philosophy) A doctrine that states that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method, refusing every form of metaphysics.

Positivismnoun

(legal) A school of thought in jurisprudence in which the law is seen as separated from moral values; i.e. the law is posited by lawmakers (humans); legal positivism.

Positivismnoun

A system of philosophy originated by M. Auguste Comte, which deals only with positives. It excludes from philosophy everything but the natural phenomena or properties of knowable things, together with their invariable relations of coexistence and succession, as occurring in time and space. Such relations are denominated laws, which are to be discovered by observation, experiment, and comparison. This philosophy holds all inquiry into causes, both efficient and final, to be useless and unprofitable.

Positivismnoun

the form of empiricism that bases all knowledge on perceptual experience (not on intuition or revelation)

Positivismnoun

a quality or state characterized by certainty or acceptance or affirmation

Positivism

Positivism is a philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either positive—a posteriori and exclusively derived from experience of natural phenomena and their properties and relations—or true by definition, that is, analytic and tautological. Thus, information derived from sensory experience, as interpreted through reason and logic, forms the exclusive source of all certain knowledge.Verified data (positive facts) received from the senses are known as empirical evidence; thus positivism is based on empiricism.Sociological positivism holds that society, like the physical world, operates according to general laws.

Interpretivismnoun

antipositivism

Interpretivismnoun

qualitative research

Interpretivismnoun

A school of cultural anthropological thought founded by Franz Boas.

Interpretivismnoun

(legal) A school of thought holding that law is not a set of given data, conventions, or physical facts, but what lawyers aim to construct or obtain in their practice.