PHIL 008 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Auguste Comte, Logical Positivism, Literary Theory
10 Jun 2020
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Document Summary
Methodological and epistemological framework for scientific inquiry: logical positivism (and natural sciences, sociology (comte; durkheim) Social sciences and human sciences should use the same investigative approach as natural sciences: testable observations, against hermeneutics & subjective meaning, scientific progress involves abstracting away form interpretations. Founding father of sociology: scientific study of society, social and political policy making. Account of social evolution/evolution of human thinking: the law of the three stages: societies undergo here distinct phases in the quest for truth. Theological stage: explanations in terms of supernatural forces or powers (before enlightenment) Metaphysical stage: explanations in terms of abstract entities (after french revolution) Scientific/positivist stage: explanations in terms of regularities/laws between phenomena (after failure of french revolution) Narrow" interpretation: positivist approach in anthropology and literary theory: language as structure. Language signs are assigned meaning relative to the meaning of other language signs. Authors" intentions are irrelevant for understanding the meaning of texts and artworks.
