PHILOSOPHY: Word of the day: Positivism

[Abba]

Positivism refers to a set of epistemological perspectives and philosophies of science which hold that the scientific method is the best approach to uncovering the processes by which both physical and human events occur. Though the positivist approach has been a recurrent theme in the history of western thought from the Ancient Greeks to the present day, the concept was developed in the early 19th century by the philosopher and founding sociologist, Auguste Comte. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
plato.stanford.edu/search/searcher.py?query=positivism

Questions and comments welcomed

 

[Abba]

Here is a comment of Pope Benedict XVI on positivism that is interesting and educational.

In the Western world it is widely held that only positivistic reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are universally valid. Yet the world’s profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions. A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures. At the same time, as I have attempted to show, modern scientific reason with its intrinsically Platonic element bears within itself a question which points beyond itself and beyond the possibilities of its methodology. Modern scientific reason quite simply has to accept the rational structure of matter and the correspondence between our spirit and the prevailing rational structures of nature as a given, on which its methodology has to be based. Yet the question why this has to be so is a real question, and one which has to be remanded by the natural sciences to other modes and planes of thought - to philosophy and theology. For philosophy and, albeit in a different way, for theology, listening to the great experiences and insights of the religious traditions of humanity, and those of the Christian faith in particular, is a source of knowledge, and to ignore it would be an unacceptable restriction of our listening and responding. Here I am reminded of something Socrates said to Phaedo. In their earlier conversations, many false philosophical opinions had been raised, and so Socrates says: “It would be easily understandable if someone became so annoyed at all these false notions that for the rest of his life he despised and mocked all talk about being - but in this way he would be deprived of the truth of existence and would suffer a great loss”.[13] The West has long been endangered by this aversion to the questions which underlie its rationality, and can only suffer great harm thereby. The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur - this is the programme with which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters into the debates of our time. “Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God”, said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God, in response to his Persian interlocutor. It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures. To rediscover it constantly is the great task of the university.http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/b...vi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_en.html

 

[Shike]

Thanks for the post.

 

[doorman330]

Recently, another outbreak of mass demonstrations Greece, 10,000 people took to the streets to protest the government imposition of severe

austerity measures. Maintain order, police said the protesters were attacked, resulting in two policemen were injured, so the demonstrators

fired stun bombs to disperse the crowd, and arrested 100 people.

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What do you think about this news ? lets share about your opinions…

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[Abba]

Recently, another outbreak of mass demonstrations Greece, 10,000 people took to the streets to protest the government imposition of severe

austerity measures. Maintain order, police said the protesters were attacked, resulting in two policemen were injured, so the demonstrators

fired stun bombs to disperse the crowd, and arrested 100 people.

more news : Coach Handbags

What do you think about this news ? lets share about your opinions…

---

|coach outlet|Coach Purses|Coach outlet factory

Hello doorman330,

Welcome to CAF.

When you want to share a news story you want to go to the World News forum or Catholic News forum and post the news article there. If there isn’t already an existing thread regarding the story you want to start a new one. You do not want to post the news story on an existing thread on the forum that has nothing to do with the story you want to share. You may want to repost this post on the World News forum and start a new thread there.

Well, regarding the news you posted, I think that some people in Greece do not really understand what is going on. It is not that the Greek government wants to lower the wages of the government employees, rather, it is the case that they simply do not have the funds to employ more employees and they are trying to keep as many as they can and so are lowering the wages.

The same situation has happened in the State of Connecticut. Two years ago, there were several pages of employment opportunities on state employment website, today there are only four very specialized positions available statewide. The employees of the state received a pay cut and many have been given lay off.

These situations are happening worldwide.

Let me put it to you this way, I have two sons and I really want to buy them new wardrobes for this school year. But, my budget simply does not allow it. Lucky for me they are males and are not even concerned and do not even know that I wish I could replace their wardrobes. But, how about if they wanted their wardrobe replaced and I said that I can replace some but not all and they start protesting? It’s not that I do not want to nor recognize their needs but it is simply a matter that I do not have the money nor does the Greek economy have the funds to continue to pay for unnecessary workers nor the wages that were once paid for positions.

Many Greeks understand the matter and that is why they are not protesting. The question really is: how can the Greek economy be better? You want to consider the dynamics and particular things of Greece (tourism) and consider how the economy can improve. One of the problems is that national economies in the past three decades have become part of a world economy and economies have become interdependent. I, for instance, as far away as I am from Greece am affected by the downturn of the Greek economy in a very particular way. So, you want to consider the global economy and how Greece a more productive role in it. What is being exported and imported etc…

Peace,

Abba

 

[sw85]

The problem with positivism:

How do you know that scientific knowledge is the only valid kind of knowledge?

Well, you don’t. That is a value judgment (an irrational one, at that) for which no one scientific evidence exists.

One can, of course, formulate positivism differently: “scientific knowledge is the best kind of knowledge.” The abovementioned problem remains, but it’s less fatal. But that raises the question of how “best” is to be understood.

There are plenty of things we know to be true for which no scientific evidence does (or even can) exist. Scientific evidence is, in some ways, based on them. Mathematical axioms are a good example. You can’t prove that for every two points in space there is exactly one straight line connecting them. You just accept the self-evident truth of it.

But once you do that, you’re moving away from positivism. You acknowledge that scientific knowledge is, ultimately, only useful for those phenomena which science is intended to study: naturalistic and materialistic phenomena. And when you grant that, it’s a short leap to assert that science necessarily has nothing to say about non-naturalistic and non-materialistic phenomena: the substance of miracles and the existence of the divine.