Pavel Mervart Publishing Society for the History of Sciences and Technology

Jitka Paitlová:
Positivismusstreit as a dispute over the method of (not only) social sciences.


2019, Volume 52, Issue 1, pp. 14-33

Abstract

Positivismusstreit (‘positivist dispute’) is the famous dispute in German sociology and philosophy of science which erupted in 1961 in Tübingen. The main issue was the logic of social sciences (also in relation to the natural sciences) but there were many crucial pre-misunderstandings at the historical-ideological level in the dispute from the beginning. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that due of this fact, the initially rather formal misunderstanding between Popper and Adorno in the first round of the dispute gradually evolved into a full-blown clash of incommensurable philosophical perspectives resulting in a complete lack of mutual understanding on both sides between Albert and Habermas in the second round.

Language: czech

Keywords: positivism, science, sociology, Popper, Adorno, Habermas, Albert

Download PDF