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Positivism Vs Anti-Positivism
These philosophical debates, between the positivists and anti-positivists, which began in
Germany in the latter part of the nineteenth century, are popularly referred as Methodenstreit.
the most general and probably the most important of which dealt with the relationship between
the natural and social sciences.
Positivists argued that the scientific methodology of natural sciences should be used to
arrive at general theories in social sciences seeing human motives and social
interaction as far too complex to be amenable to statistical analysis. On the other hand,
the anti-positivist scholars (particularly the neo-Kantians) emphasized upon the
subjective dimension of social reality and thus, did not see the possibility of any kind of
universal generalizations in social sciences.
Wilhelm Windelband (1848-1915), one of the leading neo-Kantians, Natural sciences,
according to Windelband, use a nomothetic or generalizing method, whereas social
sciences employ an ideographic or individualizing procedure, since they are
interested in the non-recurring events in reality and the particular or unique aspects of
any phenomenon.
David Hume [1711-76]), argued that the natural sciences are sciences of fact and so
questions of value were necessarily excluded from the analysis. The social sciences, in
contrast, are sciences of value because they are specifically concerned with
understanding why social actors choose to act in the ways that they do.
Note: Dont forget to study sir note it is very well explained(Refer v.imp tag)