Lecture 3: Positivism

Question 1

What is classical empiricism?

Answer 1

• focussed on the inductive approach
• John Locke, David Hume and Francis Bacon
• it’s and epistemology, but to a certain extent also ontology
• knowledge should be based on observation
• all hypotheses and theories should be tested against observations (not intuition)

Bacon: no believe systems, knowledge should be empirical

Question 2

What did Locke say with regards to empiricism?

Answer 2

Our brains are blank slates (tabula rasa). We can only have thoughts by observations.

Question 3

What is Hume’s problem with empiricism?

Answer 3

• causation: we can never actually see the causation. You observe a sequence of events, but you can never explain it.
• no universal laws: if there’s no causation, there’re no universal laws. You can’t explain things. You can’t observe all phenomena so you can never make a universal law. You can’t make future predictions based on passed observations

Question 4

What is positivism?

Answer 4

• whatever exists can be verified through observation, experiments, and mathematical/logical evidence
• knowledge need to be based on natural scientific method and mathematics (epistomology)
• axiology: positivist knowledge should help society
• Auguste Comte

Question 5

What is logical positivism?

Answer 5

• Founders: Vienna Circle or Ernst Mach Society between WWI and WWII
• Rejection of idealism and metaphysics
• Principle of verification: In theory one needs to be able to verify the claim
• Synthetic and analytic statements

Question 6

What are analytic statements?

Answer 6

• based on prior knowledge (deductive reasoning)
• independent of experience (only logic and math)
• statement that are true based on knowledge
• statements that we can just simply accept as true, no verification is needed

Question 7

What are synthetic statements?

Answer 7

• based on posterior knowledge
• a posterior knowledge
• descriptive statements that can be verified (principle of verification)
• inductive reasoning

Question 8

How did logical positivism deal with Hume’s problem?

Answer 8

Language solution. According to Hume the causality claims were problematic, so you need to move to sequential and/or necessary causation (if-then statements). This leads to giving explanation and can be used for theory building. Causation becomes relational.

Question 9

How did logical positivists build theory?

Answer 9

• if- then statements
• grand hope/ideal: a coherent account of the world, universal language (also with other disciplines)
• nesting and hierarchy of statements: general to particular (deductive)

Question 10

What are the problems with the way logical positivists build theory?

Answer 10

1. How to build an entire system of meaning? Complexity and conceptual (associative) thinking). Concepts can have different meaning for people.
2. Verification and inductive reasoning: How can you fully verify a statement? Universal laws: It can always be proven wrong. Where do the original statements come from that we all agree on?