Sociology Positivism
Positivist method of Social Science is not possible in all social science inquiru and they arise from the universality of logic the applicability to all inquiries is questionable in practice. Due to this limitations of Positivist methodology other social science or other alters form of Positivism is used in Social Sciences today. They are, Logical Positivism, Post Positivism, Interpretive Sociology and anti-postivism research methods.
In the contemporary Sociology many sociologists appreciate the importance of scientific method and they use as one of the method of inquiry critically. However they dont use the principles of orthodox positivists in Sociology in current times due to its limitations as expressed above. In addition some reject Positivism altogether because it is ahistorical, depoliticized and inappropriate theoretical concepts In practice however most use the philosophy of Positivism and Anti positivism. Some also argue that humans have free will, irrationality, imagination and one cannot predict individual behavior as generalization or at best have rigid laws of society. In contemporary thinking many Sociologists have a stance between the two extreams and use a methodology understanding the limitations of scientific method and also recognizes that at least in group level one can given the context can have some general statements of group behavior however it is difficult to predict behavior at individual level. The quantitative and qualitative methods of research are necessary in Social Science to generate new knowledge which are more objective rather than using only scientific method as human behavior id more complex and historical and cultural as well.
Positivists are guided by five principles:
unity of scientific method - logic of inquiry is the same across all sciences (social and natural)
the goal of inquiry is to explain and predict. Most positivists would also say that the ultimate goal is to develop the law of general understanding, by discovering necessary and sufficient conditions for any phenomenon (creating a perfect model of it). If the law is known, we can manipulate the conditions to produce the predicted result.
scientific knowledge is testable. Research should be mostly inductive, i.e. inductive logic is used to develop statements that can be tested (theory leads to hypothesis which in turn leads to discovery and/or study of evidence). Research should be observable with human senses (arguments are not enough, belief is out of question). Positivists should prove their research using logic of confirmation.
science does not equal common sense. Researchers must be careful not to let common sense bias their research.
relation of theory to practice - science should be as value-free as possible, and the ultimate goal of science is to produce knowledge, regardless of politics, morals, values, etc. involved in the research.