Positivism

thumb|right|upright=1|Auguste Comte, the founder of modern positivism

assertion that only statements verifiable through empirical observation are meaningful

In philosophy of science and in epistemology, instrumentalism is a methodological view that ideas are useful instruments, and that the worth of an idea is based on how effective it is in explaining and predicting natural phenomena. According to instrumentalists, a successful scientific theory reveals nothing known either true or false about nature's unobservable objects, properties or processes.*Anjan Chakravartty, , §4 "Antirealism: Foils for scientific realism: §4.1: "Empiricism", in Edward N. Zalta, ed, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Summer 2013 edn: "Traditionally, instrumentalis

school of thought of philosophy of law and jurisprudence

Postpositivism or postempiricism is a metatheoretical stance that critiques and amends positivism and has impacted theories and practices across philosophy, social sciences, and various models of scientific inquiry. While positivists emphasize independence between the researcher and the researched person (or object), postpositivists argue that theories, hypotheses, background knowledge and values of the researcher can influence what is observed. Postpositivists pursue objectivity by recognizing the possible effects of biases. While positivists emphasize quantitative methods, postpositivists co

non-fiction work by Hans Kelsen

socio-cultural movement in Poland after the 1863 January Uprising

book by Auguste Comte

1895 book by Émile Durkheim

Political and philosophical dispute

The value judgment controversy (German: Werturteilsstreit) is a Methodenstreit, a quarrel in German sociology and economics, around the question whether the social sciences are a normative obligatory statement in politics and its measures applied in political actions, and whether their measures can be justified scientifically.

theories of international relations which epistemologically reject positivism