2 - Defining positivism

Summary

It is the task of theory to detect in the welter of the unique facts of experience that which is uniform, similar, and typical. It is its task to reduce the facts of experience to mere specific instances of general propositions, to detect behind them the general laws to which they owe their existence and which determine their development.

Hans J. Morgenthau

The question ‘What is theory?’ appears to pose no great problems for contemporary science. What counts for theory in customary research is the sum-total of propositions about a subject area that are connected to each other such that from a few one can derive the rest … Theory is a store of knowledge in a form that makes it useful for the most thorough-going description of facts.

Max Horkheimer

Introduction

Before proceeding any further it is important to have a clear idea of what is meant by a positivist approach in the context of the social sciences. This is a critical question and it is important to be clear about what is being argued here. To that end, it may be useful to begin by pointing out what is not being argued in this study.

First of all, it is not being argued that positivism can be understood in terms of the popular caricature identified with amoral, atheoretical ‘number crunchers’.