Questions tagged [positivism]

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What does Nietzsche mean by "there are no facts, only interpretations"?

I came across this philosophical thought. There are no facts, only interpretations written by Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). As translated from Notebooks, Summer 1886 – Fall 1887, in The Portable Nietzsche (1954) by Walter Kaufmann, p.…
NullPointer
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How empiricism and positivism is distinguished? What's their differences?

According to Wikipedia, Empiricism is a theory that states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience. One of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism and skepticism, empiricism…
Sumit Roy
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Is it meaningful to distinguish between two possibilities which are observationally equivalent?

There are many questions in philosophy of the following kind: Does my friend have a soul, or is my friend a zombie? Is the mind separate from the body, or is it the same? Where does the universe come from? These questions have the property that,…
Ron Maimon
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How do Logical Positivists respond to the "Positivism is self-defeating" argument

Positivism asserts that any statement that cannot be empirically tested is meaningless. But obviously, this is a self-refuting statement, because it can't be empirically verified as well. How do the logical positivists, or the descendants (…
Graviton
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What is the distinction between positivism and logical positivism?

I've heard that positivism aimed to be purely empirical, while logical positivism recognised that empiricism needed to be combined with logic in order to actually be able to figure out anything. Is this an accurate characterisation of these two…
Casebash
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What are the discoveries that have been possible with the rejection of positivism?

I am wondering if the rejection of the positivism movement in philosophy lead to any major discoveries in mathematics and natural sciences? I am thinking it might have been able to contribute to those fields, but knowing almost nothing about the…
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Positive vs. Normative--Is falsification required?

I have some confusion on positive vs. normative. I am under the impression that a positive claim is a claim regarding a state of reality, while a normative claim is one of a value judgment on reality. However, I have gotten some disagreement from…
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How to deal with nihilist approaches to live a productive life?

Right off the bat, I'm a high school science student with no academic background in philosophy, other than mere personal interest. I've read meditations (like everyone else), general articles and have recently delved into Essays and Aphorisms by…
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Positivism and leftist politics

Why is positivism seen as belonging to leftist philosophers? I would have thought that the principle of following the law as it is and not as it ought to be is more right wing than left wing? In his article The Radicalism of Legal Positivism Leiter…
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Looking for a book to compliment Zammito and Mohanty in understanding the ethos of post positivistic realism

There are two books which I consider to be indispensable to an understanding of contemporary western culture’s post-truth/alternative facts (scientific and cultural post modernism/structuralism/positivism) ethos/bathos. A book that provides a…
gonzo
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Did positivism influence the development of Marxism?

Positivism (as formulated by Mills & Comte) advocated an epistemology based solely around the 'scientific method'. No doubt due to the stunning successes it had already achieved by then. Marx said that he took Hegel and turned him down: that is…
Mozibur Ullah
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How to argue for physical continuity, positivistically?

Consider the following quote from Dirac's book, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics (4th ed., p. 36): When we measure a real dynamical variable ξ, the disturbance involved in the act of measurement causes a jump in the state of the dynamical…
Mozibur Ullah
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The Opposite Point of Positivist Epistemology

In the philosophy of science, I wanted to know what is the exact opposite point of the positivist epistemology? Actually I'm not from the philosophy area and thus not familiar with different epistemologies. If there is more than one opposite…
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What is the last definition of "science"? what is its difference with knowledge?

I want to know is there a unite definition of "science"? my guess is "NO"! What do philosophers means by science that they can't define it? what is its difference with knowledge?
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What does it mean to say that the relation between evidence and hypotheses is "syntactic"?

Positivists construe the relation between evidence and hypotheses to be syntactic (L1990, 23). Consequently, "what would count as evidence for a hypothesis is determined by the form of the hypothesis sentences and evidence sentences not by…
Sasan
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