Antipositivism

Antipositivism is the view in sociology that social sciences need to create and use different scientific methods than those used in the field of natural sciences.

Antipositivism evolved in the 19th century, when sociological positivism and sociological naturalism begun to be questioned by scientists like Wilhelm Dilthey and Heinrich Rickert, who argued that the world of nature is not the same as the world of society, as human societies have unique aspects like meanings, symbols, rules, norms, and values—all that can be described as the culture.

This view was further developed by Max Weber, who introduced the term antipositivism (also known as humanistic sociology). According to this view, closely related to antinaturalism, sociology research must use specific tools and methods and concentrate on humans and their cultural values. This has led to some controversy on how one can draw the line between subjective and objective research, and influenced the study of hermeneutics.