Positivism as a Monadic View

Abstract

Now that we have a global view of the cognitive orientation, we can retrace its development more specifically in philosophy of science and science of science. This chapter and the three that follow it aim at a picture of each of the major approaches to science, which, according to the generic scheme of Table II, correspond one to one to the four stages distinguished within the development of the cognitive view. Further on (in Part III), we will argue that genuine progress in the understanding of science will involve the combination of such stages, as separate world views, in some kaleidoscopic model of science. Here, as in Chapter One, the stages are introduced more or less in their historical sequence and on their own. By presenting them as self-contained unitary approaches, we hope to recapture some flavor of the enthusiasm that accompanied the original insights and the convictions they incited. Therefore, we will focus on the germinal ideas rather than aim at historical or systematic completeness.