The Discussions of Positivism and Interpretivism

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the philosophical theoretical foundations of two basic research paradigms, namely positivism and interpretivism. In the discussion process, literature in the relevant fields including academic papers and books is reviewed and used as support for the analysis. Firstly, the paper explores the differences between the positivist and interpretivist paradigms in terms of ontology and epistemology. The paper then goes on to critically analyze the shortcomings of interpretivism, including nihilism, susceptibility to bias, and neglect of ideological influences. Finally, this paper adopts the credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability theories to support the interpretivist perspective on research methods, i.e., qualitative research methods, from the educational field. This research will help researchers to better understand the differences between positivist and interpretivist paradigms and to choose the applicable research methods according to the research field.