Positivism in Sociology

Positivism in sociology was the first direction that developed in the XIX century. Its essence consisted in the formation of a new system of knowledge about society based on the application of methods and laws of the natural sciences.

Initially positivism in sociology was opposed to speculative speculative theorizing. It arose as a result of the rejection of simple arguments about the society, as well as the desire to create such a social theory, which would in all respects correspond to the natural-scientific theory.

Positivist sociology considered the main task of its discipline to be an analytical and empirical way, based on facts, to investigate phenomena occurring in the life of society. Only in that case could she claim the title of "positive", which meant the ability to successfully and positively solve various problems existing in the life of the society.

The founder of positivist sociology is O. Kont. According to the French social scientist , social theory was to be an "accurate natural science", which relies on scientific methods.

O.Cont believed that knowledge about society should be strict, based on reliable and grounded facts, as knowledge about nature. In the work of O.Cont "The Spirit of Positive Philosophy" he wrote about the meaning of the term "positive". This concept meant the opposition of the real ephemeral, useful - unfit, reliable - dubious, exact - vague, positive - negative.

The laws of the functioning of society were considered in positivism as a continuation of natural laws. Therefore, it was considered impossible to penetrate into the essence and causes of social processes and phenomena.

Representatives of positivism studied society not in dynamics, but in statics, since it was a question of society as a system that is in stability and equilibrium.

Positivism in sociology determined that knowledge about society must meet the requirements of reality and science, so it must be extracted with the help of natural-science methods. The main methods were observing, comparing, experimenting, historical and mathematical methods.

Positivism in sociology was most clearly manifested in its directions (which are often called features of positivism), such as naturalism, evolutionism, organicism. In addition to these trends, positivism includes mechanism, social Darwinism, racial-anthropological direction, geographical determinism, and others. All the directions of positivism were distinguished by the general principle of reductionism. Its meaning lies in the desire to explain the phenomena of social life from the position of the only factor that is determining (biological, racial, geographical, etc.). These currents were called "schools of one factor".

The ideas of positivism were most fully revealed in such a direction as neopositivism in sociology . This sociological trend became the main sociological and philosophical direction of the 20th century, which was based on the established principles of logical positivism. Each branch of the doctrine of neopositivism had unique features peculiar to it in the field of applied methods.

Neo-positivism tended to consider social phenomena, relying on laws common to both nature and social reality. This manifested itself in the school of naturalism. Scientology mainly focused on the use in social studies of the methods of the natural sciences. Objectivism declared its freedom from value judgments. Operationalism defined social concepts as operational ones. Behaviorism investigated subjective factors through behavior. Quantification sought to describe social phenomena in a quantitative characteristic.