From Positivism to Post-Positivism: Progress or Digression?

Abstract

During the fi rst half of the 20 th century, approaches developed across the social sciences that were strongly infl uenced by positivist ideas. Indeed, it could be said that the very notion of a social science was positivist in origin. Moreover, even aft er positivism's infl uence had waned in many fi elds, in the second half of that century, it continued to exist at the very least as a ghostly presence, serving as a recurrent target for attack in methodological disputes. I begin by briefl y outlining the history of positivist ideas and the various forms they took, along with their implications for the practice of social science. Th en I consider two distinct varieties of 'post-positivism'; one revisionist, the other much more radical. I conclude by considering in what respects these moves beyond po-sitivism represent progress, and whether anything can still be learned from it today.