There is a important role of positivist or scientific perspective and interpretive perspective in the process of study of social events. But there is theoretical debate about which perspective or concept is more important for the study of the problems which are in the social complexity.
According to August Comte Positivism(positive philosophy) is the scientific study of social phenomena.
In Cours de philosophie positive, Comte began by asserting that ‘‘the first characteristic of Positive Philosophy is that it regards all phenomena as subject to natural Laws’’ .
the goal of positivistic sociology is to ‘‘pursue an accurate discovery of . . . Laws, with a view to reducing them to the smallest possible number,’’ and ‘‘our real business is to analyze accurately the circumstance of phenomena, to connote them by natural relations of succession and resemblance’’. Comte’s exemplar for this advocacy was Newton’s law of gravitation, an affirmation of his early preference to label sociology as ‘‘social physics.’’ Moreover, such laws were to be used to reconstruct society.
The concept of ‘‘positivism’’ was originally used to denote the scientific study of social phenomena, but today the term positivism has become vague. Most often, it is used as a pejorative smear for certain kinds of intellectual activity in the social sciences, sociology in particular. Most frequently, at least within sociology, positivism is associated with such undesirable states as ‘‘raw empiricism,’’ ‘‘mindless quantification,’’ ‘‘anti-humanism,’’ ‘‘legitimation of the status quo,’’ and ‘‘scientific pretentiousness.’’ With few exceptions (e.g., Turner 1985), sociologists are unwilling to label themselves ‘‘positivists.’’ Yet, the titular founder of sociology—Auguste Comte—used this label as a rallying cry for developing formal and abstract theory that could still be used to remake society;
In today’s context it is not possible not possible to reduce the rules of sociology to an abstract principle such is in natural sciences for example Newton’s law of gravitation holds true for the whole of universe.
But in study of society all the phenomena of a single nature can not be abstracted in a single principle such as the meaning of swastika in Nepali culture it is considered auspicious and used in the religious ceremonies and rituals but this symbol was used by the Hitler as a Ethnic symbol and to wage war against other races.
The role of positivism in the study of social phenomena are:
1. Social science should be objective and value free.
2. the objective of social research should be able to generalize the conclusion through the study of cause and effect of event.
3. There remains the possibility of pro-declaration in the study of social subjects.
4. The elements to justify the conclusion should be based on positivist fact.
5. By using objective method, we can count the real facts of social events.
Interpretive (also non-positivist or Anti positivism is the view in social science that academics must necessarily reject empiricism and the scientific method in the conduct of social theory and research.
Antipositivism relates to various historical debates in the philosophy and sociology of science. In modern practice, however, non-positivism may be equated with qualitative research methods, while positivist research is more quantitative. Positivists typically use research methods such as experiments and statistical surveys, while antipositivists use research methods which rely more on unstructured interviews or participant observation. Currently, positivist and non-positivist methods are often combined.
In sociology, interpretive analysis concept can be understood in the following meaning.
1. The meaning of event should be understood centralized in the social context.
2. Social study has to be done from the perspective of value laden rather than value free. the impact of social value should be understood.
3. In the study of social events, the study of individual events should be emphasized by using inductive method.
4. we can understand the social realities on the basis of social comparison.
5. We can understand the facts and figures from personal perspective, interpretation and analysis.
In sociological and anthropological study, these two concepts or theories have their own value and importance. These two concepts or theories can be understand in relations of social complexity by centralize only the social research on objective an subjective interpretation.
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