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Though by no means exhaustive, the variations in the characterisations of positivism in this book, viz the French tradition from Saint-Simon to Durkheim, the positivisms invoked in the disputes about methods and values in Germany and Austria, and instrumental positivism in America, are sufficiently diverse to prompt the question whether it would not be better to expel the term from the vocabulary of sociology and other social sciences altogether. Although there is much to commend this view, it is probably more realistic to aim for the qualification of the term either by epithet (Comtean positivism, instrumental positivism, etc.) or by phrase (the positivism criticised by the Frankfurt School, etc.). It is also possible to show the relationship between some of the different usages of the terms "positive" and "positivist" by locating them within the possibilities associated with three distinctions, positive and negative, positive and normative and positive and natural. This at least brings some order where otherwise there is confusion and contradiction.

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-17759-2_6

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