[[Researching]] tags:: #note/idea | #on/research | #on/science | #on/philosophy Lon Setnik dates:: 2022-09-25 *Seeing the world as measurable drives this scientific philosophy.* This reminds me of how [[theory and study are in a dialogue to inform one another]], and the theory guides the study. It's kind of like [[emotion changes the world we are in]], in this case the philosophy changes the scientific world. **positivism** is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning a posteriori facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience. Other ways of knowing, such as theology, metaphysics, intuition, or introspection, are rejected or considered meaningless. Although the positivist approach has been a recurrent theme in the history of western thought, modern positivism was first articulated in the early 19th century by Auguste Comte. His school of sociological positivism holds that society, like the physical world, operates according to general laws. After Comte, positivist schools arose in logic, psychology, economics, historiography, and other fields of thought. Generally, positivists attempted to introduce scientific methods to their respective fields. Since the turn of the 20th century, positivism has declined under criticism from antipositivists and critical theorists, among others, for its alleged scientism, reductionism, overgeneralizations, and methodological limitations. > [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism) This matters because the scientific philosophy underpinning a research study will dictate the outcomes, because we see the world based on what we are looking for. ### What would the opposite argument be? Data is data, and the world just is, so this is the way to get objective data that isn't open to interpretation. ## Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism