Positivism and Sociology (RLE Social Theory): Explaining Social Life

In order to provide a clear basis from which to assess controversial questions about the contribution of the positivist traditions to sociology, the book reviews twelve different important uses of the term positivism that have emerged at different times since the mid-nineteenth century, when Auguste Comte coined both positivism and sociology. This review is conducted by examining the historical development of the two independent roots of modern sociological positivism - positivist philosophy and statistics - and by analysing logical positivist philosophy, which in many ways defined the course of twentieth century philosophy of the social (as well as the natural) sciences.