Positivism and the Promise of the Social Sciences

Abstract

This paper contends that Auguste Comte, John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx, though politically disparate, were all vigorous proponents of a scientific approach to human phenomena, and in that way were harbingers of modem social and behavioral science. We show how for these three thinkers social science was inextricably linked to a notion of human betterment embodied in a specific moral and political vision, and argue that a dilemma emerged from their belief that such a science would lead to objective prescriptions. We then analyze how each resolved this dilemma, and review major disciplinary developments to illustrate how the modem professionalized version of social science is a response to this same dilemma. Knowledge of the historical conditions and intentions that surrounded the extension of scientific principles from physical to human arenas may better enable modem practitioners to understand why the promise the early positivists saw in social science has gone unfulfilled.