Points of departure between empiricism/positivism and phenomenology

Empiricism and Phenomenology

Identify the points of departure between empiricism/positivism and phenomenology

Steven Robinson wrote in his Are Phenomenology and Post positivism Strange Bedfellows? That, ‘’Debate has historically focused on the differences between research paradigms including the assumptions or premises that comprised the paradigms (Newman, 1992)’’.

for understanding two different paradigms we are supposed to compare them and try to pinch out points of departure between them. Usually, researchers select a research paradigm, twist and mold it and then apply it to their research topic or field of study in which she/he is doing research.  Researchers can take up different epistemological positions like empiricist, positivist, or phenomenologist. It depends on the researcher.

Major paradigms

According to Denzin and Lincoln (1998, 2000), there are four major paradigms which usually used in research.

1.     Positivism

2.     Post positivism

3.     Constructivist

4.     phenomenologist

5.     Feminist

6.     Poststructural paradigms

Here we are especially dealing with Positivism and phenomenology. These are two different paradigms. There is a sort of tension between them because these two philosophies always intersect with each other. on one hand, there is a rigid, objective giant of scientific perception while on another hand there are phenomenologists who advocated the value of lived experience which can be different from person to person because there are multiple truths and multiple interpretations. Before identifying differences present in both philosophies, we have to understand the basic concepts of positivism/empiricism and phenomenology.

Positivism

According to Steven, positivism is considered an empirical, explanatory approach that maintains a belief in observables (everything which you can observe with the help of your five senses). Auguste Comte mentioned three stages during the process of evolution namely Religious, metaphysical and scientific. He accepted the importance of each stage but give more importance to science and said we can run society through positive science. positivism is based upon an empiricist rejection of value judgment and argues that science must be confined to the ‘’is’’ rather than the ‘’ought’’. It is a more scientific mode of study and more related to applied sciences. Positivists believe that our mind is a blank sheet on which sense-based information is transmitted. They believe that we can create a better society with the help of science, we can have a similar positive science for society as well. we can manage our subjectivity and influence of idealism, ethnicity, and racialism. We can run society with this scientific method.

Bases of positivism

It is believed that throughout the history of positivism, it draws its concepts from these three major fields

1.     Inductivism

2.     Empiricism

Inductivism

According to Chris Uko, inductivism is the supremacy of facts, it is often called induction, inductive reasoning, inductive inferences, or inductivism.

Inductivism is a basic pillar on which the whole philosophy of positivism and scientific inquiry is based. Inductivism emerged in the work of Francis Bacon in the 17th century. Bacon's novel method of inquiry (his novum organum) was essentially the introduction of a method of inductive generalization.  They believe in facts and all knowledge and interpretation based on facts. For them subjective interpretation is nothing without facts so, to prove a specific law or hypothesis we have to collect solid facts about it. Inductivism is an approach that privileges logic over subjective thoughts. Inductivists demand logic behind everything.

Empiricism  

Polit and Hungler define positivism as ‘’the process whereby evidence rooted in objective reality and gathered directly or indirectly through the human senses which are used as a basis for generating knowledge’’

Empiricism aims at understanding the world as a cause-and-effect relationship that can be observable.  The empiricist is of the view that ‘’reality exists independent of us’’. For the reality is external, objective, and material. Empiricists believe that the natural and material society is governed by a set of immutable laws. We observe it or not, this world will continue to be governed by a set of permanent laws and rules. Kerry wrote that knowledge is dependent on five senses through experience, it can be derived and accumulated.  Empiricists said that reality exists as a solid entity and subjects (we) gain the knowledge of reality through sensory experience (five senses). We receive the vision of reality through our five senses, what we see, touch, smell, taste, and hear.

Phenomenology

According to steven, Phenomenology is frequently depicted as an inductive, descriptive approach that gives subjectivity a privileged position. Antonio Leopold Rappa wrote about the origin of phenomenology, 

‘’For 19th-century researchers interested in studying human behavior, the use of research approaches guided and constrained by the laws of positivism caused frustration. Out of this frustration, a second philosophical orientation to research, phenomenology, arose in the mid-1800s in Germany’’

 Phenomenology has derived from two Greek words, ‘’phenomenon’’ which means appearance, and ‘’logos’’ which means study so the agenda of phenomenology is ‘’all meanings must be generated from first hand and lived experience rather than on the interpretation of casual theories’’. Phenomenology is a philosophy of experience. It is a human-centered approach and focuses on the role of human consciousness. It evaluated the relationship between subject and object. It acknowledged the existence of both subject and object.

Types

There are three major types of phenomenology namely

1.     Husserl's transcendental phenomenology (dominance of subject)

2.      Heidegger's hermeneutical phenomenology (balance)

3.       Merleau-Ponty's inalienable presence of world (dominance of object)

All these three phenomenologies accepted the presence of both object and subject but some phenomenology gives more importance to subject and some to object.

Points of departure

These are the following points of departure between positivism and phenomenology

          1.     Inductive research/deductive research

          2.     Perception, feelings, interpretations

          3.     Experience is constant

          4.     Participatory approach/ non-participatory approach

          5.     Scientific thinking/critical thinking

          6.     Man as a puppet or not?

          7.     Goals of positivism/ goals of phenomenology

          8.     Elimination of dualism

          9.     Study in isolation/ study in structure

 

Inductive research VS Deductive research

positivism is deductive research means it is based on a compact statement which we need to verify at the end of the whole experiment. It is close-ended and fixed. There is no space for addition and manipulation in it, for example, the positivist researcher makes his research question like what is democracy? on the other hand, phenomenology is based on inductive reasoning which means that in this type of research we have a loose statement that is not supposed to verify as true or false at the end of the whole research. It is open-ended and has space for discussion. It is not fixed and monolithic, it has flexibility for addition and manipulation. Phenomenologist researcher makes his research question like what ought to be a democracy?

Perception, feelings, and interpretations

Positivism is based on science so all positivist researchers negated the concept of personal perceptions, feelings, and interpretations. Later on, with more development in this field, phenomenologists came and questioned the place of human feelings and subjective views of thinking and precepting things. Mcphail, J. C. wrote in his Phenomenology as philosophy and method that matter can be observable and analyzable with the scientific view, not human beings because they have feelings which are stupid and misleading according to science. We can understand this phenomenon by a simple example, for positivist researcher family is a collection of different human beings and everyone have their fixed position on the other hand for phenomenologist every family has their own way of living like some children have liberty and confidence to show their love for father and in some families, the father is considered as a dictator so other than factual elements, these feelings and behavior does matter so, phenomenologist said for hundred different people, the family have hundred different definitions not fixed.

Experience is constant

Positivist research believes that the experience of every human being is constant and the same in all cases. For them, every human being experiences a single phenomenon in the same way but on this point, phenomenologist contradicts and said no! if there are five persons witnessing a single incident, they all can interpret a single incident in five different ways, how can it be constant for all? if everyone has the same perception and experience about things then it is likely that all people support a single political party, no contradiction, and tussles, a utopic world. we all have different views regarding different political parties which means everyone has their own way of precepting things or experience is not constant.

 

Elimination of dualism

The important assumption of phenomenology is the belief that for generating meaning we are supposed to give equal importance to subject and object. The phenomenon to be observed is called object while the observer of this phenomenon is called the subject. Without a subject, the object cannot find a way of representation and without an object, the subject has nothing to represent so we have to acknowledge both. According to Racher & Robinson, S, ‘’every act of consciousness contains the objective/subjective aspects of the same thing’’ This assumption clearly breaks with the empirical tradition of dividing the world into material and nonmaterial, or the objective and subjective realms. Husserl called it the mind-body continuum which means mind and body both are important for doing something.  Positivism divided the world into two clear-cut realms, subject and object, material and non-material while phenomenologists eliminated this dualism.

Objective VS subjective

Positivism is based on objectivity, as Sinha in her Phenomenology and positivism. Philosophy and phenomenological research wrote that positivist assumptions are based on assumptions that the scientists or researcher is capable of suppressing his or her own views and experiences so effectively that objectivity can be achieved. Positivists believe that research can be objective and control their subjective noises but according to Edmund Husserl, objectivity is never value-free, all objectivity is value-laden and occurs as worldly, social, cultural. For phenomenologists, I am not objective is itself a subjective statement. Phenomenologists said your view from nowhere can be objective. For them, objectivity is just a myth like I A Richard’s organic world (complete, full, unique)

Man as a puppet or not?

A lot of critics argued that the positivist approach portrayed man as a passive receiver of actions, who mostly respond to outer stimuli rather than an active creator of meaning, positivists pictured man as reacting to various forces. Peter Berger argues that society has often been viewed as a puppet theater with its members portrayed as little puppets jumping about on the ends of their invisible strings. On the contrary, phenomenologist believes that man does not merely react and respond to an external society. In his interaction with others, he creates his own meanings and constructs his own reality, and therefore directs his own actions

 

 

Study in isolation VS study in structure

As we know positivists believe in scientific theories and models so they think that there is no need to study in collaboration. they love to study and theorize concepts in isolation. Positivists assumed that objectivity measured knowledge and was independent of human interaction. It assumed that the behavior of man like the behavior of matter can be objectively measured

 On the other hand, phenomenologists are interested in the various structures that lend meaning in life. phenomenologists are interested in individuals as meaning makers. phenomenologists would not observe behavior in isolation (e.g., response time and memory), that is, separated from the contexts in which these are meaningfully employed in action patterns. They focus on all the structures of relationships that may emerge in individual consciousness that shape meaning. Among the patterns that emerge may be relationships of self and world, means and ends, and power.

Participatory approach VS non-participatory approach

In phenomenology, a human being can create their own meaning by participating in research. They have given agency to participate in the creation of meaning. They believe that there are different ways of looking at reality and it is ‘’us’’ who decide what is reality? Rather than a passive receiver, people are active and participatory in this paradigm. On the other hand, in positivism, a person is not allowed to participate. He/she is just a passive receiver of meaning. They cannot create their own meaning because according to them there is a single reality that we can percept through science so no need for others’ participation in it.

Scientific thinking VS critical thinking

Positivism is based on scientific thinking. In this research, we are supposed to think scientifically. A researcher posits questions like what is it? What are constituents of this phenomenon rather than questioning why this is happening? Phenomenology is based on critical thinking. Researchers posit questions like why it is? Rather than what it is? They are more concerned about the surface meanings of the world, or text.

Goals

The goal of phenomenology is not to arrive at an explanation, but rather to come to understand the processes that human beings engage in as they construct meaning from experiences. Phenomenology deals with a sort of ‘’open-ness’’. They emphasize the fact that researchers must respect others’ way of looking at things and the meaning-making process. Barritt, Beekman, Bleeker, and Mulderij suggested that one of the goals of phenomenological research is to effectively communicate "the other's" way of seeing things. On the other hand, positivism is totally opposite in this sense, they focused on imposing their own single meaning on people because according to them there is fixed and stable reality and a single meaning of everything.

Science centered VS human-centered

Positivism is a science-centered approach in which everything happened in a proper systematic way or step by step. This approach is based on facts rather than interpretations. Positivist research is supposed to start his research by making a hypothesis and then proving this hypothesis following certain already given steps (observation, hypothesis, deduction, theory, law). It argues that all those factors which are not directly observable such as meaning, purpose, feelings are not important or misleading in research. On the other hand, phenomenology is human-centered, its major focus is a human being and their consciousness. It is a subjective approach because they admit the fact that there are biases in human nature. we cannot totally eradicate it rather we can manage it.

Hypothesis-driven VS data-driven

Positivist research is hypothesis-driven, in this research, researchers suppose to make a clear hypothesis before starting the research while in phenomenology, research is data drive. In this research, we have a loose statement, not a solid hypothesis which we try to verify subjectively and leave space for others to discuss it too.

Quantitative research VS Qualitative research

In Positivism, the researcher is supposed to do quantitative research. Quantitative research is a type of research that focuses on the quantity of data rather than its quality. It means collecting and analyzing numerical data to describe a hypothesis is called quantitative research. Quantitative research negated human subjectivity through the strictly controlled collection and data analysis method. It is more common in applied sciences. On the other hand, phenomenology deals with Qualitative research. It is a type of research in which we observe the quality and authenticity of data rather than its quantity. Qualitative research is obtaining data through open-ended and conversational communication.

Single meaning VS multiplicity of meaning

According to positivism, there is a single meaning of everything which can be percept by using our five senses. Everything is out there and we observe them by our senses. There is just one denotative meaning of the thing. Positivism advocated monolithic interpretation and perception of things and concepts. On the other hand, Phenomenology believes in a multiplicity of meaning because they accepted the fact that everyone has their own exposure to reality and things which is different from others. if I believe that something is black, another person can contradict and say no! it's grey. There is not a single meaning of a text or object, it carries a lot of connotative meanings so, phenomenology believes in multiplicity. For them, lived experience is layered with meanings and description in phenomenology is to peel away the layers.

Prescribed rules VS individual rules

Positivists work on prescribed, pre-defined fixed scientific rules but unlike the prescribed methodology of the positivist sciences, phenomenology does not follow prescribed rules. Rather, it has a set of guiding principles that researchers must keep in mind as they proceed. They made their own rules which are not fixed for everyone.

Verifiable knowledge VS non-verifiable knowledge  

Positivist science is oriented toward knowledge acquisition or episteme. According to the knowledge is not opinion. Knowledge is represented in statements of direct observation or is derived from statements that have been deductively linked to direct observation. On the other hand, Phenomenology is not interested in episteme or verifiable knowledge, they believe in inductive reasoning. Human beings in their numerous meaning-making processes are the subject matter of phenomenological research.

The setting for generating knowledge

For positivists, the laboratory is an ideal setting for the generation of knowledge and scientific ventures while phenomenologists do not construct inauthentic, laboratory situations for the study of the structures of life, but rather, situate their investigations of consciousness within the everyday world.

Conclusion

After analysis of positivism and phenomenology in-depth, we have reached the conclusion that positivism is a highly scientific, rigid, objective, deductive, approach in which the researcher is supposed to make a close-ended and rigid statement and it is compulsory to prove that statement at the end of the research, on the other hand, phenomenology believes on subjectivity, the importance of subject/object, indictive research in which researcher is supposed to make an open-ended statement and it is not compulsory to prove it right or wrong at the end of the research. Positivism is science-centered while phenomenology is human-centered in which human consciousness is given more importance. Positivist believe in formulating theories in isolation and in their labs while phenomenologist believes in investigating phenomena around the world that’s why they claim that our research is not confined and laboratory oriented like positivist, our research is ‘’lived research’’.

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