Positivism in philosophy is one of thedirections of thought. He was born in the 30-40's. before last century, and its founder is Auguste Comte. This direction is widely popular and widespread in the modern era. Below, we consider its main forms.
Philosophy of positivism
The main representatives: Comte, Spencer, Mill, and others.
As Comte believed, the very dispute between the idealists andmaterialists senseless, because it has no serious grounds. And philosophy is necessary, having left both, and from another, to be based only on scientific (positive) knowledge.
This statement means that:
1. Knowledge must be completely reliable and accurate.
2. To achieve knowledge in philosophy, the scientific method of cognition should be used, the main way for which is the empirical observation.
3. Philosophy should study only facts, not their causes, and not strive to become a super-science, “the queen of sciences”, a general theoretical outlook.
In addition, Comte put forward a law of dualityevolution. He singled out 3 stages of technical development (traditional, pre-industrial and industrial society), which corresponded to 3 stages of intellectual development (theological or religious, metaphysical and scientific worldview). However, Comte laid only the foundations of positivism, which were further improved, supplemented and continue to develop today thanks to other philosophers.
The philosophy of positivism: empirio-criticism
Key representatives: Mach, Avenarius.
Here the main task of philosophy was not to buildan all-embracing system of empirical knowledge, and the creation of scientific knowledge in theory. Unlike Comte, the representatives of this stage believed that it was necessary to engage not in creating a single picture of our world, but in establishing principles and ordering phenomena in the minds of researchers.
The very name “empirio-criticism” impliesthe criticism of experience as a given of the world to the knowing subject in the form of statements and statements. This trend of positivism is closely related to conservatism, according to which general scientific propositions are a conditional product of an agreement.
The philosophy of positivism: neopositivism
Key representatives: Carnap, Bertrand, Schlick, Russell.
Another name for this stage is logical.positivism. Its founders proclaimed their fight against the metaphysical worldview. The original prerequisites of true knowledge they saw in facts and events, that is, "sensory data." The concept of "objectivity" was replaced by the concept of "scientific" as identical. It was this stage in the development of positivism that initiated the logic of studying complex sentences, which can be either false, or true, or meaningless.
The subject of the analysis of neopositivists are the valuessigns and words in general, that is, linguistic, logical, psychological problems that had important practical and scientific importance in the process of creating computing devices.
The philosophy of positivism: post positivism
Key representatives: Lakatosh, Kun, Popper, Feuerbend.
By postpositivism is understood a lotconcepts that emerged after the teachings of Comte, empiriocriticism and neopositivism. The representatives of this stage paid special attention to the rational method of cognition.
So, according to Popper, increasing knowledge canbe achieved only in the process of rational discussion as constant criticism of the existing worldview. He also argued that scientists make discoveries, following not from fact to theory, but from hypothesis to a single statement.
Positivism as a philosophical trend had a significant impact on the methodology of both the social and natural sciences (especially in the second half of the nineteenth century).
