Positivism and social sciences

Tryfonas Lemontzoglou

Chapter 27 in Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Research Methods in the Social Sciences, 2026, pp 194-196 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Modern approaches to social sciences are characterized by a combination of different, often controversial, schools of thought that try to explain complex social reality. However, the evolution of the history of social thought has experienced many ups and downs, mainly through a process known as paradigm war. Positivism, which has its origins in the materialist philosophical tradition of ancient Greek thinkers, has strongly influenced the so-called quantitative research methods in social sciences. From the British Empiricists to the Scientific Revolution, as well as from the Quantitative Paradigm to Post-Positivism, the idea of studying the world in a positive manner remains attractive among social scientists.

Keywords: Paradigm War; Positivism; Post-positivism; Quantitative Methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781803921297
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