Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Antipositivist Theories of the Sciences

Critical Rationalism, Critical Theory and Scientific Realism

  • Book
  • © 1983

Overview

Authors:
  1. Norman Stockman

    1. Dept. of Sociology, University of Aberdeen, UK

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Part of the book series: Sociology of the Sciences - Monographs (SOSM, volume 3)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
    Download chapter PDF

  2. The Identification of Positivism

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Introduction

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 3-15

  3. Antipositivism in the Philosophy of the Natural Sciences

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17
      Download chapter PDF

    2. The Antipositivism of Critical Rationalism

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 19-27

    3. The Antipositivism of Critical Theory

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 28-71

    4. The Antipositivism of Scientific Realism

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 72-94

    5. Discussion: Antipositivism in the Philosophy of the Natural Sciences

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 95-117

  4. Antipositivism in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 119-119
      Download chapter PDF

    2. The Antipositivism of Critical Rationalism

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 121-138

    3. The Antipositivism of Critical Theory

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 139-165

    4. The Antipositivism of Scientific Realism

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 166-200

    5. Discussion: Antipositivism in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 201-230

  5. Positivism, Antipositivism and Ideology

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 231-231
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Positivism, Antipositivism and Ideology

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 233-235

    3. The Concept of Ideology in Critical Rationalism

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 236-239

    4. The Concept of Ideology in Critical Theory

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 240-246

    5. The Concept of Ideology in Scientific Realism

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 247-250

    6. Discussion: Positivism, Antipositivism and Ideology

      • Norman Stockman
      Pages 251-259

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 260-284
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

The sciences are too important to be left exclusively to scientists, and indeed they have not been. The structure of scientific knowledge, the role of the sciences in society, the appropriate social contexts for the pursuit of scientific inquiry, have long been matters for reflection and debate about the sciences carried on both within academe and outside it. Even within the universities this reflection has not been the property of any single discipline. Philosophy might have been first in the field, but history and the social sciences have also entered the fray. For the latter, new problems came to the fore, since reflection on the sciences is, in the case of the social sciences, necessarily also reflection on themselves as sciences. Reflection on the natural sciences and self-reflection by the social sciences came to be dominated in the 1960s by the term 'positivism'. At the time when this word had been invented, the sciences were flourishing; their social and material environment had become increasingly favourable to scientific progress, and the sciences were pointing the way to an optimistic future. In the later twentieth century, however, 'positivism' came to be a word used more frequently by those less sure of nineteenth century certainties. In both sociology and philosophy, 'positivism' was now something to be rejected, and, symbolizing the collapse of an earlier consensus, it became itself the shibboleth of a new dissensus, as different groups of reflective thinkers, in rejecting 'positivism', rejected something different, and often rejected each other.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Dept. of Sociology, University of Aberdeen, UK

    Norman Stockman

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Antipositivist Theories of the Sciences

  • Book Subtitle: Critical Rationalism, Critical Theory and Scientific Realism

  • Authors: Norman Stockman

  • Series Title: Sociology of the Sciences - Monographs

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7678-9

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1983

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-277-1567-8Published: 31 October 1983

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-8380-7Published: 30 December 2010

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-015-7678-9Published: 09 March 2013

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 284

  • Topics: Philosophy of Science

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation