The twentieth century is rightly considered a turning point in the history of mankind. It became that period when there was a qualitative leap in the development of science, technology, economics and in other sectors that are a priority for a person. Naturally, this could not but give rise to some changes in the minds of people. Having begun to think differently, they changed the approach to many familiar things, which, one way or another, influenced the moral standards of behavior of society. Such a transformation could not but cause the emergence of new philosophical concepts and ideas, which later transformed and took shape in the direction of philosophical science. For the most part, they were based on the change of outdated models of thinking and offered a very special system of interaction with the world. One of the most unusual currents that arose in that period is postpositivism.
However, it can be said that this philosophical movement was the successor to several other areas that formed in the first quarter of the twentieth century. We are talking about positivism and neopositivism. Postpositivism, which took the essence from them, but singled out completely different ideas and theories from it, became a kind of final stage in the formation of philosophical thought of the twentieth century. But this trend still has a lot of features, and in some cases, contradictions regarding the ideas of its predecessors. Many philosophers believe that post-positivism is something special, which is still the subject of discussion among the followers of this direction. And this is quite natural, because in some cases his concepts literally contradict each other. Therefore, modern postpositivism is of serious interest in the scientific world. In the article we will consider its main provisions, ideas and concepts. We will also try to give readers an answer to the question: “What is this - postpositivism?”
Features of the development of Western philosophy of the twentieth century
Philosophy is perhaps the only science in which new concepts can completely refute previous ones that seemed unshakable. This is exactly what happened with positivism. In philosophy, this direction appeared as a result of the transformation of several currents into one concept. However, one can talk about its features only by understanding how exactly these ideas arose among the huge number of concepts that took shape in the twentieth century. Indeed, Western philosophy in this period of time was experiencing a real upsurge, building on the basis of old ideas something completely new, which is the future of the philosophy of science. And post-positivism has become one of the most striking of these areas.
The most popular in the last century were such directions as Marxism, pragmatism, Freudianism, neo-Thomism and others. Despite all the differences between them, these concepts had common features characteristic of Western philosophical thought of that time. The following characteristics were characteristic of all new ideas:
- Lack of unity. In the twentieth century, in the West, completely mutually exclusive ideas, schools and trends arose simultaneously. Often they all had their own problems, basic concepts and terms, as well as study methods.
- Appeal to the person. It was the last century that turned science face to face, which became the object of its close study. All his problems were transformed into the basis of philosophical thought.
- Substitution of concepts. Often there have been attempts by some philosophers to present other disciplines about man as philosophical science. Their basic concepts were mixed together, thus forming a new direction.
- Relation to religion. Many schools and concepts that arose at the dawn of the new century, one way or another, touched on religious topics and concepts.
- Inconsistency. In addition to the fact that new ideas and trends constantly contradicted each other, many of them also completely refuted science as a whole. Others, on the contrary, built their ideas on it and used a scientific methodology in the formation of their concept.
- Irrationalism. Many philosophical trends deliberately limited the scientific approaches to knowledge as such, directing the flow of thoughts to mysticism, mythology, and isotericism. Thus, leading people to an irrational perception of philosophy.
As you see, all these features can be found in almost any of the philosophical movements that arose and took shape in the twentieth century. They are also characteristic of postpositivism. Briefly, this direction, which declared itself in the sixties of the last century, is rather difficult to characterize. Moreover, it is based on currents that formed a little earlier - in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Positivism and postpositivism can be represented as communicating vessels, but philosophers would say that they still have different content. Therefore, we will familiarize ourselves with these trends in the following sections of the article.
A few words about positivism
The philosophy of positivism (post-positivism was further formed on its foundations) arose in France. Its founder is Auguste Comte, who in the thirties formulated a new concept and developed its methodology. The direction was called "positivism" due to its main guidelines. These include the study of problems of any nature through the real and the constant. That is, the followers of these ideas always focus only on the factual and sustainable, and they reject other approaches. Positivists categorically exclude metaphysical explanations, since they are not feasible in this direction. And from the point of view of practice, they are absolutely useless.
In addition to Comte, a great contribution to the development of the ideas of positivism was made by English, German and Russian philosophers. Such extraordinary personalities as Stuart Mil, Jacob Moleshott and P.L. Lavrov were followers of this trend and wrote a lot of scientific works about him.
In general, positivism is represented as a set of the following ideas and ideas:
- The process of cognition must be absolutely clean from any assessment. To do this, it is cleared of a worldview interpretation, and it is also necessary to get rid of the scale of value guidelines.
- All philosophical ideas that arose earlier are recognized as metaphysical. This leads them to removal and replacement with science, which was put on a par with philosophy. In some situations, you could use a review of knowledge or a special doctrine of the language of science.
- Most of the philosophers of that time adhered to either idealism or materialism, which were extremes in relation to each other. Positivism offered a third way, not yet framed in a clear and clear direction.
Auguste Comte reflected the basic ideas and traits of positivism in his six-volume book, but the main idea is as follows - in no case should science dig into the essence of things. Its main task is to describe objects, phenomena and things as they are now. To do this, it is enough to use scientific methods.
In addition to the voiced one, there are several more features that are considered basic for positivism:
- Cognition through science. Previous philosophical directions carried ideas about a priori knowledge. It seemed to be the only way to gain knowledge. However, positivism proposed a different approach to this problem and suggested using a scientific methodology in the process of cognition.
- Scientific rationality is the strength and foundation of a worldview. Positivism is based on the notion that science is just a means that should be used to know this world. And after that, it may well transform into an instrument of transformation.
- Science in search of the natural. For philosophy, it is characteristic to seek the essence in the processes taking place in society and nature. They are presented as a continuous process with a unique ability to transform. However, positivism offers a look at these processes from a scientific point of view. And it is science that is capable of seeing patterns in them.
- Progress leads to knowledge. Since science was put by positivists above all else, they naturally considered progress to be the necessary engine for humanity.
Very quickly in the West, the ideas of positivism became stronger, but on this basis a different trend arose, which began to take shape in the forties of the last century.
Logical Positivism: Key Ideas
There are far more differences between neopositivism and postpositivism than common features. And first of all, they consist in a clear direction of the new trend. Neopositivism is often called logical positivism. And postpositivism in this case is rather its opposition.
We can say that the new trend set its main task logical analysis. Followers of neopositivism consider the study of language the only way to clarify philosophical problems.
Knowledge with this approach seems to be a combination of words and sentences, sometimes quite complex. Therefore, they must be transformed into the most understandable and clear phrases. If you look at the world through the eyes of neopositivists, it will appear in the form of a scattering of facts. They, in turn, form events that have certain objects. From events presented as a specific configuration of utterances, knowledge is formed.
Of course, this is a somewhat simplified approach to understanding the essence of the new philosophical trend, but it describes the logical positivism in the best possible way. I would also like to mention the moment that all statements and knowledge that cannot be described from the point of view of sensory experience are rejected by the followers of the current. For example, the statement “blood red” is easily recognized as true, since visually a person can confirm it. But the phrase “time is irreversible” is immediately excluded from the circle of problems of neopositivists. This statement cannot be known through sensory experience, and, therefore, it receives the prefix “pseudo”. This approach was very ineffective, showing the failure of neopositivism. And post-positivism, which succeeded him, became a kind of alternative to previous trends.
Talk about postpositivism
Post-positivism in philosophy is a very special trend, which was formed from the two concepts we previously described, but nevertheless has a number of unique characteristics. For the first time they started talking about these ideas in the sixties of the last century. The founding fathers of post-positivism, Popper and Kuhn, did not consider his main idea to be confirmation of knowledge by scientific methods, research and sensory approach, but rather a refutation of scientific thought. That is, it is considered important to be able to refute basic statements and thereby gain knowledge. These statements allow us to characterize postpositivism briefly. However, such information is not enough to penetrate into its essence.
This current is one of those rare, which does not have a basic core. In other words, postpositivism cannot be represented in the form of a clearly formulated course. Philosophers give this definition to this direction: postpositivism is a set of philosophical concepts, ideas and currents, united under one name, and which replaced neo-positivism.
It is noteworthy that all these concepts can have an absolutely opposite basis. Followers of post-positivism can adhere to different ideas and at the same time consider themselves philosophers close in spirit.
If you take a closer look at this current, then it will appear as complete chaos, which, from a scientific point of view, is particularly ordered. The most prominent representatives of post-positivism (Popper and Kuhn, for example), while refining each other's ideas, often disputed them. And this became a new impetus to the development of philosophical movement. Today it is still relevant and has its followers.
Representatives of postpositivism
As we have already said, this current unites many concepts. Among them, there are more and less popular ones that have a good base and methodology and completely “raw” ideas. If you study most of the directions of post-positivism, it will become clear how they contradict each other. However, it is quite difficult to do this, so we will only touch on the most vivid concepts formed by the philosophers talented and recognized in the scientific community of their time.
The most interesting are the postpositivist concepts of the following philosophers:
- Karl Popper
- Thomas Coon.
- Paul Feyerabenda.
- Imre Lakatos.
Each of these surnames is well known in the scientific world. The combination of the words "postpositivism" and "science" thanks to their labors actually acquired an equal sign between themselves. Today, this does not cause anyone any doubt, but at one time the philosophers listed above had to spend a lot of time and effort to prove their views and confirm the concept. And it was they who were able to draw up their ideas more clearly. They lost a certain fuzziness and found boundaries that allow us to determine the direction of ideas. Due to this, this ideology looks more advantageous.
Distinctive features
The ideas of postpositivism have many distinctive features from those currents that contributed to its formation. Without studying them, it is rather difficult to penetrate the essence of the philosophical trend, which has become one of the most unusual in the entire history of the existence of philosophy as a science.
So, let's discuss in more detail the main characteristics of post-positivism. First of all, it is worth mentioning the relation of this direction to knowledge itself. Typically, philosophical schools consider its static value. It is presented as a model of science translated into a symbolic form. A similar approach is characteristic of mathematical science. But post-positivists approached knowledge in dynamics. They became interested in the process of its formation, and then development. At the same time, they were given the opportunity to follow the process of dynamic changes in knowledge, which usually eluded the views of philosophers.
The methodological aspects of postpositivism also differ significantly from positivism and neopositivism. The new trend places emphasis along the entire path of development of knowledge. At the same time, postpositivists do not consider the entire history of science as a field of knowledge. Although it is a rather striking set of events, which includes scientific revolutions. And they, in turn, completely changed not only ideas about these or those events, but also a practical approach to tasks. It includes certain methods and principles.
The main ideas of post-positivism are deprived of a rigid framework, limitations and contrasts. We can say that the predecessors of this trend tended to divide facts and theories into empirical and theoretical. The former seemed like a constant, they were reliable, clear and unchanging in any circumstances. But theoretical facts were positioned as volatile and unreliable. The followers of post-positivism erased such a clear framework between these two concepts and in some way even equated them to each other.
The problems of postpositivism are quite diverse, but they are all related to the search for knowledge. In this process, facts that are directly dependent on theory are of great importance. This is due to the fact that they have a serious theoretical burden. Such a statement leads post-positivists to the statement that in reality the base of facts is just a theoretical basis. At the same time, the same facts with different theoretical bases are essentially different.
It is interesting that many philosophical movements distinguish between philosophy and science. However, postpositivism does not separate them from each other. This doctrine asserts that all philosophical ideas, theses and concepts are in their very basis scientific. The first to speak of this was Karl Popper, whom many today consider the founder of this movement. Subsequently, he gave his concept clearer boundaries and worked out the problems. Almost all the followers of post-positivism in philosophy (this is proved and confirmed) used Popper's works, confirming or refuting their main points.
The views of Thomas Popper
This English philosopher is considered the most interesting of the positivists. He managed to make society look from a different angle at scientific knowledge and the process of acquiring it. Popper was primarily interested in the dynamics of knowledge, that is, its growth. He was sure that this could be traced through various processes, which, for example, could include discussions or the search for a refutation of existing theories.
By the way, the Englishman also had his own opinion on gaining knowledge. He seriously criticized the concepts that described this process as a smooth transition from facts to theory. In fact, Popper was convinced that scientists initially had only a few hypotheses, and only then did they acquire a certain form through utterances. Moreover, any theory can have a scientific characteristic, if it can be comparable with experimental data. However, at this stage there is a high probability of falsification of knowledge, which casts doubt on its whole essence. According to Popper's beliefs, philosophy stands apart in a number of scientific knowledge, since it does not allow one to verify it empirically. So philosophical science is not subject to falsification due to its essence.
Thomas Popper was very seriously interested in scientific life. He introduced her study into the problems of postpositivism. In general terms, the scientific life was positioned by the scientific field, on which the theories struggle continuously. In his opinion, in order to know the truth, it is necessary to immediately discard the refuted theory in order to advance a new one. However, the very concept of "truth" in the interpretation of the philosopher takes a slightly different meaning. The fact is that some philosophers categorically refute the very existence of true knowledge. However, Popper was convinced that it was still possible to find the truth, but practically unattainable, since on this path there was a high probability of getting confused in false concepts and theories. From this follows the assumption that any knowledge ultimately has a false character.
Popper's main ideas were as follows:
- all sources of knowledge are equal to each other;
- metaphysics has a right to exist;
- trial and error is considered as the main scientific method of cognition;
- the main analysis is the process of development of knowledge.
At the same time, the English philosopher categorically denied the very possibility of applying any ideas of the law regarding phenomena occurring in public life.
Kuhn's post-positivism: basic ideas and concept
Everything written by Popper has been criticized more than once by his followers. And the most striking of them was Thomas Coon. He criticized the whole concept of the development of scientific thought put forward by his predecessor, and created his current in post-positivism. He first put forward terms that later became actively used by other scientists in their works.
We are talking about concepts such as “scientific community” and “paradigm”. They became basic in the concept of Kuhn, but in the writings of some other followers of post-positivism, they were also criticized and completely refuted.
Under the paradigm, the philosopher understood a certain ideal or pattern, which must be checked in search of knowledge, in the selection of solutions for problems and in identifying the most pressing problems. The scientific community was represented by a group of people who are united by a paradigm. However, this is the simplest of all explanations of Kuhn's terminology.
If we consider the paradigm in more detail, it will become clear that it includes a lot of different concepts. It cannot exist without static models of teaching, the values of the search for true knowledge and ideas about the world.
Interestingly, in Kuhn's concept, the paradigm is not a constant. She performs this role at a certain stage in the development of scientific thought. During this period of time, all scientific research is carried out in accordance with the framework established by it. Однако процесс развития невозможно остановить, и парадигма начинает изживать себя. В ней обнаруживаются парадоксы, аномалии и другие отклонения от нормы. Избавиться от них в рамках парадигмы невозможно и тогда она отбрасывается. На смену приходит новая, выбранная из огромного количества подобных. Томас Кун считал, что этап выбора новой парадигмы очень уязвим, так как в такие моменты существенно увеличивается риск фальсификаций.
При этом философ в своих работах утверждал, что определить уровень истинности знания просто невозможно. Он критиковал принципы преемственности научной мысли и считал, что прогресс не может оказывать влияния на научную мысль.
Идеи Имре Лакатоса
Абсолютно иной постпозитивизм у Лакатоса. Этот философ предложил свою концепцию развития научной мысли, в корне отличающуюся от двух предыдущих. Он создал особую модель развития науки, имеющую четкую структуру. При этом философ ввел некую единицу, которая позволяла в полной мере раскрыть эту структуру. За единицу Лакатос взял научно-исследовательскую программу. Она имеет несколько составляющих:
- ядро;
- защитный пояс;
- совокупность правил.
Каждому пункту данного списка философ дал свою характеристику. К примеру, за ядро принимаются все неопровержимые факты и знания. Защитный пояс постоянно изменяется, при этом в процессе активно используются все известные методы: фальсификация, опровержение и так далее. Всегда используется и указанная совокупность методологических правил. Научно-исследовательская программа может прогрессировать и регрессировать. Эти процессы напрямую связаны с защитным поясом.
Многие ученые считают, концепцию Лакатоса одной из самых совершенных. Она позволяет рассмотреть и изучить развитие науки в динамике.
