In consultation with your supervisor select a broad research topic (the obvious choice would be your own research area). Then select 2 of the perspectives covered in Part A. At least one of these must be from A2 or A3. Discuss the ways in which each per

In consultation with your supervisor select a broad research topic (the obvious choice would be your own research area). Then select 2 of the perspectives covered in Part A. At least one of these must be from A2 or A3. Discuss the ways in which each perspective (i) might affect the selection of research questions to be addressed and (ii) the methodological approach taken to your selected research area.

The term positivism is commonly supposed to have originated with Comte, and in particular his Cours de philosophie positive (6 vols, 1830-42), and is often used by social scientists to refer to a group of approaches to research practise that share a number of characteristics. The most important of these characteristics are,

(i) the view that a material world exists independently of our knowledge of it, and
(ii) that we must rely upon observation of this material world to develop successful theories.

Positivism in philosophy has come to be associated with epistemologi...