Priyamvada Ashok MhaddalkarAIR 13 · CSE 2021 · 163 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening · a definition
None written.
Body · points
Positivism is the method of sociological inquiry based on the scientific method used for natural sciences.
FEATURES OF POSITIVISM → Propounded by early sociologists - August Comte, Herbert Spencer and Emile Durkheim → Based on empiricism, verification and objectivity. → Human subjective consciousness does not play a role in study of social reality.
CONTESTATIONS REGARDING POSITIVISM
Interpretivists like Max Weber emphasized on the understanding of meaning and motives of social action - Verstehen.
Alvin Gouldner's Reflexive Sociology explained that individual affects social reality and vice-versa. He was against methodological dualism of positivism.
Phenomenologists like Alfred Schutz argued that social action gets meaning only when an individual assimilates and attaches a meaning to it based on typifications.
Ethnomethodologists like Harold Garfinkel further expand the phenomenological thought and emphasize on the different methods through which individuals explain the social reality.
Close · a summary
Thus the different contestations regarding Positivism have enriched Sociology by expanding its scope and explaining social reality in a better way.