Positivism in sociology was the first direction that took shape in the 19th century. Its essence was the formation of a new system of knowledge about society through the application of the methods and laws of the natural sciences.
Initially, positivism in sociology was opposed to speculative speculative theorizing. It arose as a result of the rejection of simple discussions about society, as well as the desire to create such a social theory that would in all respects correspond to the natural science theory.
Positivist sociology considered the main task of its discipline to investigate phenomena occurring in the life of society analytically and empirically, based on facts. Only in this case could she claim to be “positive,” which meant the ability to successfully and positively solve various problems that exist in the life of society.
The founder of positivist sociology is O. Kont. According to the French social scientist , social theory was supposed to be an “exact natural science” that relies on scientific methods.
O. Kont believed that knowledge about society should be strict, based on reliable and reasonable facts, like knowledge about nature. In the work of O. Comte, "The Spirit of Positive Philosophy," he wrote about the meaning of the term "positive." This concept meant the opposition of the real to the ephemeral, the useful to the unfit, the reliable to the doubtful, the exact to the vague, the positive to the negative.
The laws of the functioning of society were considered in positivism as a continuation of natural laws. Therefore, it was considered impossible to penetrate into the essence and causes of social processes and phenomena.
Representatives of positivism studied society not in dynamics, but in statics, since we were talking about society as a system in stability and balance.
Positivism in sociology determined that knowledge about society should meet the requirements of reality and science, therefore it should be obtained using natural science methods. The main methods were considered observation, comparison, experiment, historical and mathematical methods.
Positivism in sociology is most clearly manifested in its directions (which are often called traits of positivism), such as naturalism, evolutionism, and organism. In addition to these trends, positivism includes mechanism, social Darwinism, racial and anthropological trends, geographical determinism, and others. All directions of positivism were distinguished by the general principle of reductionism. Its meaning lies in the desire to explain the phenomena of social life from the position of the only factor that is determining (biological, racial, geographical, etc.). These trends were called "schools of one factor."
The ideas of positivism were most fully revealed in such a direction as neopositivism in sociology . This sociological trend became the main sociological and philosophical direction of the 20th century, which was based on the prevailing principles of logical positivism. Each branch of the doctrine of neo-positivism possessed unique features peculiar only to it in the field of applied methods.
Neopositivism gravitated toward the consideration of social phenomena, relying on laws common to both nature and social reality. This manifested itself in the school of naturalism. Scientism mainly focused on the use of the methods of the natural sciences in social studies . Objectivism declared its freedom from value judgments. Operationalism defined social concepts as operational. Behavioralism investigated subjective factors through behavior. Quantification sought to describe social phenomena in quantitative terms.