Behind the welter of names

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Behind the welter of names positivism,
naturalism, post-positivism, relativism, feminist
standpoint epistemology, foundationalism,
postmodernism, each with an array of sub-species
lie important questions Is there a single,
absolute truth about educational phenomena, or
are there multiple truths? (Or is the concept of
truth itself so problematic as to be of no value
in understanding the world?) Can we count on our
senses or on reason, to distinguish that which is
true about the world from that which is false?
Are there methods that can lead us close to
understanding, or are there inherent
indeterminancies in all methods? (Pallas, 2003,
p.6)
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The Epistemological Tradition of Positivism and
Post-Positivism

• Externalist and Objective
• properties of the environment are the important
  determinants of knowledge

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Until now one assumed that all cognition had to
conform to objectshenceforth one might try to
find out whether we do not get furtherif we
assume that the objects have to conform to our
cognition.

• Immanuel Kant quoted in Glasersfeld (1995),
• emphasis added

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Mathematical analysis itself may betray us into
substituting signs for ideas.

• Compte (1896)
• Considered the father of positivism

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Only statements of mathematics and empirical
science have sense. All other statements are
without sense.

• Carnap 1935/1966, p. 218
• Logical Positivist/Vienna Circle

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What does the fish DO? Describe the behavior that
is observed.
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General Principles of Positivism

• linked closely to empirical science
• leads to progress scientific discovery is the
  instrument and driving force of progress
• scientific knowledge is both accurate and certain
• science discovers meanings while subjective
  knowledge ascribe meanings
• Objects have meanings prior to, and independently
  of, consciousness of them
• objective, verifiable knowledge must be separated
  from subjective, unverifiable knowledge
• the world studied by the positivist scientist is
  an abstraction of the world we live in.

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Every scientific statement must remain tentative
for ever.

• Karl Popper (1959, p.280), emphasis in original

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There is not a single idea, no matter how absurd
and repulsive, that has not a sensible aspect,
and there is not a single view, no matter how
plausible and humanitarian, that does not
encourage and thus conceal our stupidity and our
criminal tendencies.

• Feyerabend, the enfant terrible

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What is the fish DOING?
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Assumptions of Post - Positivism

• Absolute truth can never be found.
• Research is a process of making claims and then
  testing, refining or abandoning some of them for
  other claims more strongly warranted.
• Data, evidence and rational considerations shape
  knowledge.
• Research seeks to develop relevant, true
  statements that can serve to explain the
  situation that is of concern or that describes
  the causal relationship of interest.
• Researchers must examine their methods and
  conclusions and control or limit bias.

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Positivism Post-Positivisim are NOT

• Behaviorism
• Empiricism

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• People do not create society. For it always
  pre-exists them and is a necessary condition for
  their activity. Rather, society must be regarded
  as an ensemble of structures, practices and
  conventions which individuals reproduce or
  transform, but which would not exist unless they
  did so. Society does not exist independently of
  human activity (the error of reification). But it
  is not the product of it (the error of
  voluntarism).
• Roy Bhaskar, 1998

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Assumptions of Critical Realism

• Concerned with social rather than natural science
• All knowledge is fallible but not equally
  fallible
• Process of retroduction or abstraction
• Assumes vertical structure of reality
• Assumes horizontal structure of reality