In my opinion, every person tries to explain the world based on their own theological beliefs. They can do that based on metaphysics where they can directly describe reality as it is. The positivist researcher than would try to give a scientific explanation and a verification of this reality. It can be said that the positivist would describe the scientific description of reality. According to von Wright (1971), the main aim for enquiry the positivist researcher would be explanation, ultimately enabling the prediction and control of phenomena, whether physical or human. (As sited in Guba & Lincoln, 1994, p.113). If I have to define positivists or the view in which positivists view their data, the two words which come to mind are ‘prediction’ and ‘control’.
The term interpretivism is a very broad term which includes a few paradigms, all of which try to explain the meanings and experiences of humans. This thinking style was first talked about in many Greek and Roman philosophies, but the interpretivist form of social science grew from the German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. According to Kant, the central thinking of constructivist thinking is that you cannot partition out an objective reality from the person (research participant) who is experiencing, processing, and labeling the reality (Sciarra, 1999).
criticalists are, in my opinion, pessimists who do not believe in anything and everything present around them, even if they are present as theories. criticalists think that any theory may have been true in a given time and space in the past but may not be presently true. they are closer to interpretivists in theor way of thoughts.
How do we know what we know ?
Positivism, which is one view as to how knowledge is created and which is highly favoured by researchers, theorizes that behaviour can be predicted and that cause-and-effect relationships are clear and pervasive Burrell and Morgan (1979).
This contrasts sharply with the Interpretivist paradigm which holds a subjective view of reality and its anti-positivist epistemology which is concerned with explaining individuals’ perception of organizations and society and which seeks to understand the subjective individual and organizational processes that shape and control behaviour. Article attached elaborates:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236941623_Building_a_knowledge_society_one_individual_at_a_time_a_multi-level_review
Working Paper Building a knowledge society one individual at a time: a mul...
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