Interpretivism (social science)

In social science, Antipositivism (also interpretivism and negativism) proposes that the social realm cannot be studied with the scientific method of investigation applied to the Natural world; investigation of the social realm requires a different epistemology. From that philosophic perspective, antipositivism proposes that social-science researchers first must be aware that the concepts, ideas, and language of research shape his or her perceptions of the social world under investigation.

Beginning with Giambattista Vico, in the early eighteenth century, and later with Montesquieu, the study of natural history and human history were separate fields of intellectual enquiry. Natural history is not under human control, whereas human history is a human creation. As such, antipositivism is informed by an epistemological distinction between the natural world and the social realm. The natural world can only be understood by its external characteristics, whereas the social realm can be understood externally and internally, and thus can be known.

In the early nineteenth century, intellectuals, led by the Hegelians, questioned the prospect of empirical social analysis.Karl Marx died before the establishment of formal social science, but nonetheless rejected the sociological positivism of August Comte — despite his attempt to establish an historical materialist science of society.

The enhanced positivism of Emile Durkheim served as foundation of modern academic sociology and social research, yet retained many mechanical elements of its predecessor.Hermeneuticians such as Wilhelm Dilthey theorized in detail on the distinction between natural and social science ('Geisteswissenschaft'), whilst neo-Kantian philosophers such as Heinrich Rickert maintained that the social realm, with its abstract meanings and symbolisms, is inconsistent with scientific methods of analysis. Edmund Husserl, meanwhile, negated positivism through the rubric of phenomenology.

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