Postpositivism

Like many concepts that begin with post and end with ism, postpositivism is hard to concisely define. It is not so much a definite philosophy as a collection of beliefs that are positioned against an older set of ideas. The forebears of postpositivism are several versions of positivism that began with August Comte's formulation of classical positivism. He postulated a progression of scientific knowledge beginning with a primitive theological phase in which the church and its clergy determined what was legitimate scientific knowledge. Next was a metaphysical phase, where phenomena were explained as the result of mysterious, invisible forces or substances. For example, in the 17th and 18th centuries, a popular theory held that combustion was caused by the release of a fifth classical element called phlogiston. In the positive phase, which Comte promoted, phenomena are explained on the basis of immutable natural laws, such as Newton's law of gravity.

Following Comte, the idea of positivism evolved. As many as 12 variants have been identified. Today it is hard to find anyone in the social sciences who is a true positivist. Yet many communication researchers retain some core ideas of positivism while accommodating critiques that sprang up along the way. We can therefore define postpositivism as a philosophy of science that respects the spirit of science in the context of fundamental reforms of positivistic principles.

The spirit of science values knowledge built through rigorous, systematic observation. Though postpositivists believe in this approach, they also take seriously critiques that have been leveled at the various kinds of positivism over the years. As a result, they accept five principles that represent reforms of beliefs held by earlier positivists.

Falsificationism is the belief that the discovery of disconfirming instances is the most important factor in the progress of science. This is at odds with earlier versions of positivism, which believed in the verification theory of meaning—the idea that discovery of instances confirming a theory was the key to scientific progress. Karl Popper, a prominent critic of the verification theory, argued that we can almost always find some evidence to support a theory. Yet this can never offer conclusive proof [Page 777]that a theory is true because some new facts could come along at any time to disprove it. In contrast, disconfirming cases unambiguously show when and how a theory is false. Science, then, is actually a critical enterprise that proceeds by a process of conjecture and refutation. It never reaches certainty that a theory is true, but only shows that it has never been refuted—the best known method for generating reliable scientific knowledge.

Naturalism is the belief that there is an essential unity between the social sciences and the natural sciences. Postpositivists would not accept the positivist belief that the social and natural sciences are isomorphic because they acknowledge that understanding plays a role in all science. However, they believe that as a rule hermeneutic reflection is not any more troublesome for social sciences than it is for the natural sciences. Because it is part of the natural world, there is nothing about communication that precludes the adoption of scientific methods.

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