Pareto’s Sociological Positivism

Albert, Gert

doi:10.1177/1468795x04040652

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Setting aside LP and LE for a moment, it is important to briefly note the influence on this issue of Karl Popper, who rejected verification and popularized the falsifiability criterion for demarcating science and pseudoscience. For Popper, a theory or hypothesis is scientific if it can in principle be falsified, if we can think up ways to prove it wrong (Albert, 2004). Popper issued this attack on the verification criterion from the standpoint of “uncompromising deductivism.” In Popper’s opinion, verification suffered the classic problem of induction (Galavotti, 2007).…”

Section: Historical Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dynamics of Positivism in the Study of Public Administration

Whetsell

Shields

2013

Administration & Society

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This article explores the development of three features of positivism from the 1800s to the present: the unity of science, the verification criterion of meaning, and the empiricist observation language. The development of these features is demonstrated in the mid-20th century public administration (PA) literature and in the self-reflective literature of the last three decades. Contemporary positivism has been substantially moderated: The verification criterion of meaning has been abandoned, but the unity of science remains a presupposition, and the empiricist observation language remains an important tool. By presenting this intellectual history, some clarity may be added to the philosophical discourse in PA.

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Section: Historical Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dynamics of Positivism in the Study of Public Administration

Whetsell

Shields

2013

Administration & Society

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“… 9. Positivistic theory refers to a particular nineteenth-century approach to social action and should not be confused with ‘methodological positivism’ or ‘epistemological positivism’. These latter forms of positivism, which characterize both Pareto’s and Parsons’ sociology, claim that social meaning can be systematically identified and verified as true through inductive methods of empirical observation (see Albert, 2004). The positivistic theory of action, which both Parsons and Pareto reject, refers to the rationality of the social actor herself.…”

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confidence: 99%

The social facts of democracy: Science meets politics with Mosca, Pareto, Michels, and Schumpeter

Christensen

2013

Journal of Classical Sociology

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The rapid expansion of the social sciences in post-war America produced a new approach to research on the theory and practice of democracy. Some of the main themes of this approach were borrowed from early sociological critiques of democracy developed by a group of European social scientists who were later called ‘elite theorists’ or ‘Machiavellians’. This article outlines the set of theoretical motifs found in the works of Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto, and Robert Michels that became a foundation for the study of democracy in American post-war social science. Writing in response to the perceived problems of social democracy at the time, Mosca, Pareto, and Michels each identified the goals and ideals of mass popular sovereignty as ill conceived and dangerous based on ‘social facts’ derived from empirical observation. These ‘facts’ appeared in later studies of democracy as naturalized or self-evident foundational propositions. Joseph A. Schumpeter’s famous critique of democracy’s classical ideals is one of the most important examples of a theory built on the ‘facts’ produced by the early critics. This article therefore presents an analysis of the role these conclusions played in Schumpeter’s theory, which characterized democracy as a series of mechanisms designed to mediate and control, rather than give full expression to, popular sovereignty.

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“…In 2012, we will publish a Special Issue on John Holloway's most recent book, entitled Crack Capitalism (2010), illustrating the continuing relevance of Marxist thought to contemporary critiques of capitalism. In addition to our thorough engagement with the various legacies of Marxist, Durkheimian, and Weberian thought, we have published articles on the writings of Vilfredo Pareto (Albert, 2004), Ludwig Wittgenstein (Greiffenhagen and Sharrock, 2009;King, 2009;Ogien, 2009), Antonio Gramsci (Fontana, 2002), Werner Sombart (Grundmann and Stehr, 2001), Charles Cooley and George Herbert Mead (Schubert, 2006), Franklin Giddings (Chriss, 2006c), and Lester Ward (Chriss, 2006b). …”

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confidence: 99%