Positivism dispute

Positivismusstreit is the German word for debate about positivism and labels a well known philosophical dispute between Critical rationalism (Karl Popper, Albert) and the Frankfurt School (Theodor W. Adorno, Habermas) in 1961, about the methodology of the social sciences. It grew into a broad discussion within German sociology from 1961 to 1969.

The debate started in 1961 in Tübingen/Germany on the 'Tagung der deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie' (Conference of the German Society of Sociology). The topic of the invited speakers was to discuss the differences between social and natural sciences and the status of values in the social sciences.

In 1963 the debate was continued and somewhat aggravated by Jürgen Habermas in the "Festschrift für Adorno". It became more critical 1964 on the 'Soziologentag' (conference on sociology) in Heidelberg when Herbert Marcuse joined the party. The debate grew up into an excited literary discussion between Habermas and Hans Albert. It was now that positivism came into the centre of the debate. Also discussed were the questions of whether Popper's and Albert's critical rationalism has contributed to ethical problems and whether it is possibly capable to such contributions.

The famous dispute eventually culminated in a collection of essays published in 1969. This book was translated into several languages, 1976 also into English (see below), and intrigued anew a broad audience up to the present day.

References

*Adorno, Albert, Dahrendorf, Habermas, Pilot und Popper, "The Positivist Dispute in German Sociology", Heinemann London 1976 and Harper Torchbook 1976.

*Dahms, H.-J., "Positivismusstreit. Die Auseinandersetzungen der Frankfurter Schule mit dem logischen Positivismus, dem amerikanischen Pragmatismus und dem kritischen Rationalismus", Frankfurt a.M. (Suhrkamp) 1994.

*Find further literature in the German "Study Guide to Hans Albert": [http://de.wikibooks.org/wiki/Studienf%C3%BChrer_Hans_Albert:_Positivismusstreit]