ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors provide a brief history of key Western philosophies that researchers draw upon. They begin with a brief discussion of positivism and post-positivism to show how these philosophies differ from those most frequently used by qualitative researchers today. Then the authors turn to a discussion of the philosophies that qualitative researchers frequently use to guide their work. They present this history by grouping related ideas and philosophical schools of thought together, rather than by proceeding in strict chronological order. Logical positivism, also called logical empiricism, emerged predominantly from a group of scientists and philosophers in Vienna in the early twentieth century, who were against metaphysics. An additional development of post-positivism is found in the work of Bhaskar, who developed a now widely used philosophical position called ‘critical realism’. His approach emphasizes the rational: the bridge between science and philosophy that neither fully embraces positivism nor on the other hand post-modernism.
