Positivistic organicism is a philosophical perspective that combines principles of positivism, which emphasizes empirical observation and scientific inquiry, with organicism, which views society and its systems as interconnected and akin to a living organism. This approach suggests that social phenomena can be studied and understood through systematic observation and analysis, much like biological organisms. It posits that societal structures and functions are interdependent, and emphasizes the importance of understanding the whole system rather than just individual parts. Ultimately, positivistic organicism seeks to apply scientific methods to the study of social dynamics and relationships.
Positivistic research is an approach grounded in the belief that knowledge is best derived from empirical and measurable evidence. It emphasizes objective observation and the use of quantitative methods, such as experiments and surveys, to test hypotheses and establish generalizable laws. This approach often seeks to uncover causal relationships and relies on statistical analysis to validate findings, aligning with the scientific method. Ultimately, positivistic research aims to produce clear, reliable, and replicable results.
D C. Mercer has written: 'Phenomenology and related non-positivistic viewpoints in the social sciences'
Positivism is philosophy of science based on the view that in the social as well as natural sciences, data derived from sensory experience, and logical and mathematical treatments of such data, are together the exclusive source of all authentic knowledge
Positive, negative, hilarious, heartfelt, scrumptious, exquisite, wondrous, meaningful, optimistic, positivistic, generous, loyal, gnarled, chic, ostentatious, dowdy, uniform, plentiful, boisterous, mysterious, and maybe flexible Will any of this work for you?
Kimberley Ann Klint has written: 'An analysis of the positivistic and naturalistic paradigms for inquiry' -- subject(s): Affect (Psychology), Gymnastics for children, Naturalism, Positivism, Psychological aspects, Psychological aspects of Gymnastics for children, Psychological aspects of Sports, Research, Sports
The French philosopher, Auguste Comte (1798-1857), made many lasting contributions to human thought and life. Known as the founder of Sociology and also deeply involved in 'humanism,' among many other endeavors, Comte's most significant 'major idea' may be his 'positivistic' notion that all worthwhile (rational, scientific) claims or truths must be empirically verifiable, that is, confirmed as true by the human senses. At the same time, he valued logical proof as another important tool for gaining genuine knowledge, since in his view absolute laws govern society just as they govern the natural world.
Comte coined the term "sociology" and may be viewed as its founder.Comte thought of sociology as a positivistic science.He elaborated four methods of sociology.He distinguished social statics from social dynamics.He offered a dialectical view of structural change.
Traditional Dimension One: Positivistic, Scientific, Objective, Quantitative Dimension Two: Masculine attributes, patriarchal perspectives Dimension Three: Standard of Whiteness Dimension Four: Separateness, impersonality, oppositional, competition Dimension Five: Privileged Status Alternative Dimension One: Interpretive, intuitive, subjective, qualitative Dimension Two: Feminine Attributes, feminist perspective Dimension Three: Diversity Dimension Four: Interconnectedness, integration, differences viewed as complementary Dimension Five: Recognition of Oppressions and elimination of privilege
NeoConserative criminology is on the one hand committed to preservation of the traditional values of society and on the other hand to the promotion of technocratic rationalities. The main protagonist of Neo-conservative criminology is James Q Wilson who was extremely influential on the criminal justice policies in the US. He had numerous advisory roles in the Regan and Bush administrations. Neoconservative criminology should be understood as as a specific application of social engineering. According to neoconservative thinking the economic, technical and managerial systems of modernity should be safeguarded and extended. However, this does not apply to its ethical and moral components and hence the call to 'back to basics' and 'traditional family values'. Central to neoconservative thinking is that crime and deviance is committed because people are not committed to self-control or self-regulation. Neoconservative criminologies are not concerned with the causal theories of crime as they do little to change the crime problem. They have abandoned attempt to tackle the root causes of crime. (poverty, inequality, class, gender Etc). Hence they argue that the welfare state has created a culture of the feckless, lazy, and state dependent whose moral values have been lost. Instead focus should be placed on practical and cost effective policy making. Hence neoconservative criminology pays attention to the moral culture of contemporary society as a major cause of rising crime levels. Related Control Theories. Broken Windows theory. Rational choice theories. Situational crime prevention. Administrative criminologies.
dogma: means something about a little ugly duckling that never got no dates he grew with a social life like the popeThe following content is taken from a website of a similar nature and is not my own answerdogmatic \dog*mat"ic\ (d[o^]g*m[a^]t"[i^]k), n. One of an ancient sect of physicians who went by general principles; -- opposed to the Empiric. dogmaticSource: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48dogmatic \dog*mat"ic\ (d[o^]g*m[a^]t"[i^]k), dogmatical \dog*mat`ic*al\ (d[o^]g*m[a^]t"[i^]*kal), a. [L. dogmaticus, Gr. dogmatiko`s, fr. do`gma: cf. F. dogmatique.]1. Pertaining to a dogma, or to an established and authorized doctrine or tenet. [1913 Webster]2. Asserting a thing positively and authoritatively; positive; magisterial; hence, arrogantly authoritative; overbearing. [1913 Webster]Critics write in a positive, dogmatic way. -- Spectator. [1913 Webster][They] are as assertive and dogmatical as if they were omniscient. -- Glanvill. [1913 Webster]Dogmatic theology. Same as Dogmatics.Syn: Magisterial; arrogant. See Magisterial. [1913 Webster]Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48133 Moby Thesaurus words for "dogmatic": Sabbatarian, a priori, antiblack, arbitrary, arrogant, assertive, assured, authoritarian, authoritative, balking, balky, believing, biased, bigoted, blind, bulldogged, bulletheaded, bullheaded, canonical, case-hardened, categorical, certain, chauvinistic, colored, conceited, confessional, confident, convinced, creedal, creedbound, deaf, deducible, derivable, devout, dictatorial, doctrinaire, doctrinal, doctrinarian, dogged, dogmatizing, domineering, doubtless, emphatic, evangelical, faithful, fanatic, fideistic, fundamentalist, hardheaded, headstrong, hidebound, hyperorthodox, imperious, impressed with, influenced, insistent, interested, intolerant, jaundiced, know-nothing, literalist, literalistic, magisterial, mulish, nonobjective, obdurate, obstinate, one-sided, opinionated, opinionative, opinioned, oracular, overbearing, overzealous, partial, partisan, peremptory, persevering, persuaded, pertinacious, pietistic, pigheaded, pious, pistic, pontifical, positive, positivistic, precisianist, precisianistic, prejudiced, prepossessed, pronunciative, purist, puristic, puritanical, pushy, racist, reasoned, restive, satisfied, secure, self-opinionated, self-opinioned, self-willed, set, sexist, sold on, staunch, stiff-necked, straitlaced, strict, strong-willed, strongheaded, stubborn, sulky, sullen, superpatriotic, sure, swayed, tenacious, twisted, ultranationalist, uncooperative, under the impression, undetached, undispassionate, undoubtful, undoubting, unpersuadable, unregenerate, warped, willful, xenophobicSource: Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0dogmatic adj1: characterized by arrogant assertion of unproved or unprovable principles [syn: dogmatical]2: relating to or involving dogma; "dogmatic writings"Source: WordNet (r) 2.0Dogmatic \Dog*mat"ic\, n. One of an ancient sect of physicians who went by general principles; -- opposed to the Empiric.Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)Dogmatic \Dog*mat"ic\, Dogmatical \Dog*mat`ic*al\, a. [L. dogmaticus, Gr. ?, fr. ?: cf. F. dogmatique.]1. Pertaining to a dogma, or to an established and authorized doctrine or tenet.2. Asserting a thing positively and authoritatively; positive; magisterial; hence, arrogantly authoritative; overbearing.Critics write in a positive, dogmatic way. -- Spectator.[They] are as assertive and dogmatical as if they were omniscient. -- Glanvill.Dogmatic theology. Same as Dogmatics.Syn: Magisterial; arrogant. See Magisterial.Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)The meaning of the word dogmatic is to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true.
uctionThere have been many attempts to relate and integrate the social into the economic and vice versa. The conception and theory of culturallag is well suited to a blending of the social and the economic. Whereas an analysis of the need for institutional adjustment is outside the paradigmatic boundaries of mainstream economic analysis, institutional adjustment is central to the concept and theory of culturallag. In their attempts to integrate the social and the economic in an holistic framework, both Thorstein Veblen as an economist, and William F. Ogburn as a sociologist, utilized the conception of cultural lag in their theories related to the dynamics of culture evolution. Whereas Veblen analysed the processes of economic evolution in the framework of culture evolution, Ogburn analysed social evolution in the context of culture evolution (Ogburn, 1966, p. 377).Consequently, cultural lag does not pertain simply to conception alone, but relates to theory and explanation as well, "I think it better to say that since it is a concept of a relationship, it is a theory. It is therefore more than merely a new term in the language" (Ogburn, 1957, pp. 169-70). As concept and theory, cultural lag helps to identify, analyse and explain social problems as well as to predict and anticipate future problems. More than that, it can also be policy-oriented and direct us to possible solutions. It is noted in the literature that the cultural lag concept and theory has provided one of the most important tools of socioeconomic analysis:The culturallag approach has been one of the master concepts of modern social analysis ... The concept of culture lag, which Veblen used to analyse social processes, has been widely used by American sociologists to account for both social change and social problems (Davis, 1968, pp. 304-5).Culturallag is discussed in most current sociology textbooks as an important aspect of social change.Cultural lag is often critiqued, however, as being too general as to conception. "Once a theory includes such concepts as 'lags' ... it becomes so labile and so indistinct that it can be reconciled with virtually any configuration of data" (Merton, 1951, p. 238). None the less, the concept has weathered the storm. The significance, staying power, and merits of the concept are obvious, in that "cultural lag" still appears in most dictionaries and textbooks[1].Relative to its importance, there is little current discussion pointedly directed to a specific statement ofcultural lag theory and its relevance to current problem identification and resolution. Our aim is to review the pros and cons of the concept and theory of culturallag, with a view to integration and analysis of the pertinent issues raised by its supporters as well as critics. In this way, we hope to clarify and update the concept and theory of cultural lag.This paper will be divided into three parts: The first part will deal with a clarification of the cultural lagconcept and theory. The second part will address the issue of empirical verification. The third part will discuss the relevance of the concept and theory of culturallag to socioeconomic policy.A clarification of cultural lag: concept and theoryOne definition of cultural lag offered by Ogburn is:A culturallag occurs when one of two parts of culture which are correlated, changes before or in greater degree than the other part does, thereby causing less adjustment between the two parts than existed previously (Ogburn, 1957a, p. 167).The idea of cultural lag has evolved over time. It was apparent in the works of both Karl Marx and Thorstein Veblen. The Veblenian dichotomy juxtaposed the dynamics of industrial technology, as material culture, to the statics and lag inherent in the ceremonial and the pecuniary, embedded in non-material culture. According to Ogburn, "I have been accused of taking the theory from Thorstein Veblen", which Ogburn denied, "... because I had never read him on this point" (Ogburn 1957a, p. 168). Ogburn admitted that he had read Marx on this subject and that this was "... a base from which the theory of cultural lagwas developed, but certainly neither the materialistic interpretation of history nor economic determinism is the same as cultural lag" (Ogburn, 1957a, p. 168).It would seem that while the idea of cultural lag was implied by others, the explicit formulation of the concept and development of the theory awaited Ogburn. Cultural lag is possible "to the extent that culture is like a machine with parts that fit" (Ogburn, 1957a, p. 171). In this sense, Ogburn was influenced by functionalism because he emphasized the interrelatedness of social institutions. But the concept ofcultural lag also differs from functionalism because it has to do with the dynamics of structural change and disorganization. Functionalists, by comparison, deal with the statics of equilibration within a given structure[2].Ogburn first used the term "cultural lag" when he was a professor of economics and sociology at Reed College in 1914. He developed his theory of cultural lag in 1915, but did not publish it until 1922. A primary concern of Ogburn was empirical verification. In one of his earlier studies, he related the adjustment of legislative laws to industrial accidents, which revealed his positivistic inclinations, in that each of the steps in his analysis required "... careful assessment of evidence and is not something to be judged ... in an offhand manner" (Duncan, 1964, p. xvi).Prior to the industrial period, tools were simple and the work relationship was of a personal nature. Under these conditions, if a worker had an accident, there was something called the common law of negligence under which the employee could be compensated. With the coming of the machine age, the rise of the factory system, and the resulting increase in the number of accidents, the common law of negligence would no longer suffice. Hence, there was a period of maladjustment or lag until such time as the workmen's compensation laws came into effect (Ogburn, 1966, pp. 213-16). A basic statement of Ogburn'scultural lag thesis is:... that the various parts of modern culture are not changing at the same rate, some parts are changing much more rapidly than others; and that since there is a correlation and interdependence of parts, a rapid change in one part of our culture requires readjustments through other changes in the various correlated parts of culture ... Where one part of culture changes first, through some discovery or invention, and occasions changes in some part of culture dependent upon it, there frequently is a delay in the changes occasioned in the dependent part of culture. The extent of this lag will vary according to the nature of thecultural material, but may exist for a considerable number of years, during which time there may be said to be a maladjustment (Ogburn, 1966, p. 200).As with many others, given the complexity of culture, Ogburn recognized the difficulties of definition. One definition, though, that he gave in his book, Social Change, revealed his background as a social behaviourist. He defined culture as "... the accumulated products of human society, and includes the use of material objects as well as social institutions and social ways of doing things" (1966, p. 58). In general terms, Ogburn conceptualized culture as our "social heritage", the "superorganic" which he got from Herbert Spencer's evolutionary theory, and "civilization" (Ogburn 1966, pp. 4-5). Ogburn, however, recognized the unilinear fallacy and rejected the inevitable-stages part of Spencer's theory as being characteristic of any specific culture.Of central importance, Ogburn divided culture into the material and nonmaterial. His aim was to emphasize the material part of culture that he felt was not particularly emphasized in Edward Tylor's earlier definition as "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society" (Ogburn, 1966, p. 4). Non-material culture was broken down into adaptive and non-adaptive parts.An example of this would be the family, which is a part of non-material culture. When the factory system provided work away from home, the family had to adapt and adjust to these changed material conditions. At the same time, some of its functions remained constant, and were non-adaptive, such as procreation. Culture evolves and accumulates as a result of invention, discovery and diffusion. It accumulates selectively bemuse of the persistence of culturalforms (culturalinertia) and the addition of new forms.This selective process leads to diversification and heterogeneity, which in turn leads to specialization. This occurs because a particular group does not become acquainted with the whole of culture, but only that part in which it specializes. As material culture …
Rural sociology as it is understood in the United States came into being in Europe only after World War I I. On the surface, this seems somewhat surprising. An important part of the population of Europe is still rural. During the last few decades in most European countries the percentage of the active population engaged in agriculture was higher than in the United States, in several countries much higher. Sociology as a science originated from Europe. So why no rural sociology at an earlier date? The re are several reasons which help to explain this phenomenon. First of all, one has to bear in mind that rural sociology as we know it now is not just the sociology of rural life. One could imagine a rural sociology in many respects quite different from the present. Rural sociology as we know it in America and elsewhere has strong roots in practice. Even if it would not be right to call rural sociology just an applied science, it would be equally wrong to deny its strong interest in the problems of daily life and its striving for applicability. Rural sociology never would have developed in the way it did if it had not shown its importance for the betterment of rural life. But before World War I I, sociology in Europe was hardly seen by nonprofessionals as a science which had a practical value. This conclusion was right. Sociology as it was taught and studied in Europe before the war was, for the greater part, highly theoretical and often even philosophical in character. Thus, there was no place for a rural sociology with a strong orientation to applicability. Many sociologists even sought generalizations at such a high level that differences between rural and nonrural society hardly came