Positivism: the march of science

Inherent in the methodologies guiding research efforts are a number of theoretical perspectives, as the previous chapter has suggested and Table 1 has exemplified. Furthermore, there is a range of epistemological positions informing the theoretical perspectives. Each epistemological stance is an attempt to explain how we know what we know and to determine the

Positivism

The coining of the word ‘positivism’ is often attributed to Auguste Comte. Unjustifiably, it seems. While he did make up the word ‘sociology’ (and its predecessor, ‘social physics’), he cannot be credited with ‘positivism’. We are on safer ground in seeing Comte as a populariser of the word, especially through the Societe Positiviste, which

Post-positivism

Early inroads into the absoluteness and dogmatism of positivist science were made by a pair of eminent physicists, Werner Heisenberg (1901- 76) and Niels Bohr (1885-1962). Heisenberg, a German scientist, is one of the founders of ‘quantum theory’. He articulates an ‘uncertainty principle’ which well and truly calls into question positivist science’s claims to

Constructionism: the making of meaning

Constructionism is well removed from the objectivism found in the positivist stance. In some areas it seems to have replaced objectivism as the dominant paradigm. If this is indeed the case, and to the extent to which it is the case, we are witnessing the end of a very long tradition. Objectivism—the notion that

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The construction of meaningful reality

In the constructionist view, as the word suggests, meaning is not discovered but constructed. Meaning does not inhere in the object, merely waiting for someone to come upon it. As writers like Merleau- Ponty have pointed out very tellingly, the world and objects in the world are indeterminate. They may be pregnant with potential

‘Social’ constructionism

If seeing interpretation as a making of meaning does not condemn us to subjectivism, it does not condemn us to individualism either. We have to reckon with the social origin of meaning and the social character with which it is inevitably stamped. Fish emphasises that ‘all objects are made and not found’ but adds

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Conformism or critique?

It would seem important to distinguish accounts of constmctionism where this social dimension of meaning is at centre stage from those where it is not. Using ‘constmctionism’ for the former and ‘constructivism’ for the latter has echoes in the literature, even if the terminology is far from consistent. For example, after referring to the

Realism and relativism

Social constructionism is at once realist and relativist. To say that meaningful reality is socially constructed is not to say that it is not real. As we have noted earlier, constructionism in epistemology is perfecdy compatible with a realism in ontology—and in more ways than one. Stanley Fish underlines the reality of our social

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Interpretivism: for and against culture

In the schema presented in the Introduction, the first column is headed ‘Epistemology’. Objectivism, which we have related to positivism and post-positivism, and constructionism, which we dealt with in the last chapter, are examples of epistemological positions encountered within the field of social research. As stated already, we shall encounter examples of a more

Roots of interpretivism

Interpretivism is often linked to the thought of Max Weber (1864— 1920), who suggests that in the human sciences we are concerned with Verstehen (understanding). This has been taken to mean that Weber is contrasting the interpretative approach (Verstehen, understanding) needed in the human and social sciences with the explicative approach (Erklaren, explaining), focused

Symbolic interactionism

Symbolic interactionism offers what is very much an American perspective on life, society and the world. As already noted when discussing constructionism, it stems from the thought of pragmatist philosopher and social psychologist George Herbert Mead. Mead’s teaching, which extended over a period of almost 40 years, principally at the University of Chicago, is

Phenomenology

Phenomenology, in itself, is a simple enough concept. The phenomenological movement was launched under the batde cry of ‘Back to the things themselves!’. The ‘things themselves’, as phenomenologists understand the phrase, are phenomena that present themselves immediately to us as conscious human beings. Phenomenology suggests that, if we lay aside, as best we can,

Interpretivism: the way of hermeneutics

The term ‘hermeneutics’ came into modem use in the seventeenth century in the context of biblical studies. Hermeneutics was, and is, the science of biblical interpretation. It provides guidelines for scholars as they engage in the task of interpreting Scripture. The actual explanation of what a biblical text means is known as exegesis. Behind

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Historical origins of hermeneutics

While the word is only about two-and-a-half centuries old, hermeneutics as a disciplined approach to interpretation can be traced back to the ancient Greeks studying literature and to biblical exegesis in the Judeo- Christian tradition. The Greeks took texts to be wholes rather than merely a juxtaposition of unorganised parts. Because of this, they

The hermeneutic mode of understanding

What, one might ask, are the characteristic ways in which hermeneutic theories differ from other approaches to meaning and understanding? For a start, it can be said that, in one way or another, hermeneutics views texts as strange and far off. It is because of this alienation or ‘distantiation’ that the interpretative task is

Modern hermeneutics

Dilthey is of central importance in the history of modem hermeneutics. He was not the first modern hermeneuticist, however. Around the turn of the nineteenth century and in the early years of that century, it was Friedrich Ast (1778-1841) and Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) who extended hermeneutics beyond the realm of biblical exegesis. Schleiermacher, much

Critical inquiry: the Marxist heritage

In discussing interpretivism in the previous two chapters, the issue of critical inquiry has already emerged for us. By and large, interpretivism is an uncritical form of study. Phenomenology, to be sure, at least in its more authentic guise, is self-professedly critical. Still, not all phenomenologists have recognised the critical character of their enterprise

Critical inquiry of Karl Marx

Despite the caveat that has just been entered, Karl Marx (1818-83) must be recognised as one of the principal moulders of modem thought. Certainly, he more than anyone else has inspired and laid the foundation for the critical inquiry that obtains today. Marx was unlike Comte or Mill or any other representative thinker of

Marxism after Marx

On Marx’s death it was left to Friedrich Engels to take things forward. From papers left by Marx he compiled and published the two further volumes of Das Kapital Among those papers he found Marx’s Theses on Feuerbach, written in 1845. He published this work in edited form in 1888. We owe many other

The Institute for Social Research

The Frankfurt School has been mentioned several times already. It has its origins in the Institute for Social Research set up in 1924 under the patronage of Felix Weil. Weil, the son of a multimillionaire and a student of Robert Wildebrandt, a socialist professor of political economy at Tubingen, wanted to establish an institutional