ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents the key concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. Positivism is a theory of knowledge according, to which science consists of a corpus of causal laws on the basis of which phenomena are explained and predicted. These positivisms are different proposals as to what is to be understood by the term 'positivism', supported by different individuals or groups at different times. The two theories of history, positivism (scientism) and positivism (social evolutionism), are unrelated to the epistemological theses, positivisms, except by historical contingency. Twentieth-century philosophers of science have devoted an enormous amount of attention to working out the details of the epistemological positivisms, and these explicative efforts have revealed severe internal difficulties. Many sociologists, too, have been bewitched by the developments and changes in philosophers analyses and understandings of explanation, experience, causality, laws and theory reviewed, and they have responded by adopting a whole spectrum of views.
