The Philosopher's Corner: A Post-Positivist Answering Back. Part 1: Good for You, Karl Popper!

Abstract

I am a critical post-Positivist ? and hold it as a badge of honor. To be a Positivist means that you are humbly willing to put your theory to a test that can falsify it ? that is, to show that it is wrong despite all that you have put into it. To be a post-Positivist means believing in that standard but also acknowledging the limitations of Positivism, including limitations of measurement and its theory-dependence as well as acknowledging that there are social processes in science too. A post- Positivist does not claim that other epistemologies are necessarily wrong. It is just that researchers who adhere to the falsification principle are willing to put their money where their claims are, rather than allowing in the temptation to endlessly massage theories so that they are constantly updated to be consistent with new facts. In that vein, Positivism, despite its limitations, can by virtue of the falsification principle put a dent in confirmation bias and the kind of heuristics suggested by Tversky and Kahneman that prejudice our seeing patterns even when they do not exist. It is in that spirit that this paper is written.