Positivism and

Constructivism
 Epistemology and Ontology
Epistemology: From Greek epistēmē and logos, is a branch of philosophy
concern with knowledge. Epistemology studies the nature of knowledge,
justification, and the rationality of belief.

Epistemology addresses such questions as "What makes justified beliefs

justified?", "What does it mean to say that we know something?" and
fundamentally "How do we know that we know?".

Ontology (or Metaphysics): From Greek ὄν, on that means “being; that which
is” is a branch of philosophy concern with being, becoming, existence and realty.

Ontology addresses such question as “which entities exist?”, “what are the
relations between kinds of entities?” and “what is the relations between what
exists and our experience?”.
Epistemology and Ontology

Reality Perception Language

 Kinds of Knowledge
There are, classically speaking, two kinds of knowledge: a priori
and a posteriori and two categories of proposition: analytic and
synthetic.
A priori knowledge: knowledge that independent of experience
(that is, it is non-empirical, or arrived at beforehand, usually by
reason).
A posteriori knowledge: knowledge that dependent of experience.
Proposition: a statement that can be true or false.
Analytic proposition: a proposition that the judgment of it's truth
value is not depended on experience.
Synthetic proposition: proposition that the judgment of it's truth
value is depended on experience.
Knowledge and Proposition-
The Kantian view
A priori A posteriori

"All bachelors are ????

analytic unmarried."

"7 + 5 = 12" "All bachelors are

synthetic unhappy."
 Positivism –
Historical Background
- Empiricism: all true knowledge come from the senses.
- Auguste Comte (1798-1857) , a French philosopher that asserted that
all authentic knowledge allows verification and that the only valid
knowledge is scientific. He argued that society, like the physical
world, operates according to general laws (Comte, 1848).
- Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) reformulated sociological positivism as a
foundation of social research. In his seminal monograph Suicide
(1897), he carefully examining suicide statistics in different police
districts. He attempted to demonstrate that Catholic communities have
a lower suicide rate than Protestants, something he attributed to social
(as opposed to individual or psychological) causes. He coined the term
sui generis (“social facts") that can be obtained by empirical-statictical
research, and sociology was born.
Positivism- Basic Affirmations
- There is no a priori knowledge of facts about the world; all true
knowledge about the world depend on sensory experience.
- Verified data (positive facts) received from the senses are known
as empirical evidence.
- Introspective and intuitive knowledge is rejected, as are
metaphysics and theology.
 Positivism-
Knowledge and Truth
- Knowledge exists outside of the self.

- Knowledge can only be obtained by observation and prediction.

- “The truth is out there”. Truth is something that need to be found in an

objective process of observation and analysis of data.

- Truth, once obtain, can't be changed.

- All statements about the world are synthetic, but there are analytical
statements derived from language.
 Positivism-
The Sticker Version
Objects have intrinsic meaning, and knowledge is a
reflection of a correspondence between thought and
reality, as express in language. Knowledge should
represent a real world that is thought of as existing,
separate and independent of the knower; and this
knowledge should be considered true only if it correctly
reflects that independent world.
 Positivism and
Research Methods
- Avoidance, if possible, or controlling of subjective influences.

- Quantitative research based on statistical analysis of controlled objective

observational data.

- Causality can be derived only by controlled experimentation.

- Validation of conclusions is derived by repeated observations and by

statistical methods (Quantitative research).
 Constructivism –
Historical background
- Roots of Constructivism can be traced back to the Greek philosophers
Heraclitus, Protagoras and Aristotle.

- In 1934 the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard (1884 - 1962) claimed

that "Nothing proceeds from itself. Nothing is given. All is constructed".

- In 1967 Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) first used the expression

"constructivist epistemology".

- The doctrine is indebted to late 19th Century Darwinian theory, as it is

claimed by constructivists that human understanding, as the product of
Natural Selection, can be said to provide no more "true" understanding of
the world as it is in itself than is absolutely necessary for human survival.
 Constructivism –
Basic Affirmations
- There is no a priori knowledge of facts about the world; All of
our knowledge is "constructed" in that it is contingent on
convention, human perception and social experience.

- Constructivism do not focus on an ontological reality which

regard as utterly incoherent and unverifiable, but instead on
constructed reality. Thus, they reject out of hand any claims to
universalism, realism or objective truth, and admit that their
position is merely a view, a more or less coherent way of
understanding things that has thus far worked for them as a model
of the world.

- All forms of acquiring knowledge are accepted.

 Constructivism –
Knowledge and Truth
- Categories of knowledge and reality are actively created by
social relationships and interactions.

- The truth is “within” and depend on the situation.

- Truth is flexible and is relational in respect to the knower and the

social convention and interactions.

- Scientific knowledge is constructed by scientists, and not discovered

from the world through strict scientific method

- They Hold that there is no single valid methodology.

 Constructivism –
The Sticker Version
All of our knowledge is "constructed" in that it is
contingent on convention, human perception and
social experience. Therefore, our knowledge does
not necessarily reflect any external reality but a
working model of the world.
 Constructivism Positivism
Qualitative Quantitative
Type of research
Open-ended questions, Closed-ended questions, pre-
Methods emerging approaches, text determined approaches,
and/or image data numeric data

Positions researcher within the Tests or verifies theories or

Research practices context explanations
Collects participant-generate Identifies variables of interest
meanings
Relates variables in questions
Focuses on a single concept or or hypotheses
phenomenon
Uses standards of reliability
Brings personal values into the and validity
study
Observes and then measures
Studies the context or setting of information numerically
participants
Uses unbiased approaches
Validates the accuracy of
findings Employs statistical procedures
Interprets the data
Creates an agenda for change
or reform
Involves researcher in
collaborating with participants