Positivism

Positivism

Positivism is an epistemology that maintains that true knowledge is derived from natural phenomena, as well as their relationships and properties. As a result, information derived from perceiving and understood by reason and logic is the only source of true knowledge. According to the epistemological school, certitude facts can only be found in a posteriori knowledge. The origins of epistemology may be traced back to Auguste Comte's theories in the early nineteenth century, who stated that the operations of the physical universe are founded on the law of gravity as well as other absolute laws. However, even before Comte, philosophers like Plato in his critique of poetry in dialogues such as the republic in which he shows the difference between humanities and natural science.

Constructivism

Constructivism is believed to have come from several philosophies and can be traced to ancient Greece. Early Greek philosophers who are credited with the development of what came to be known as constructionism include Heraclitus and Protagoras. Kant is another philosopher that is credited with the development of constructionism although he did not use the term. Kant argued that people can only cognize things a priori depending on what they have put in their minds. Therefore, the reality is not independent of people’s thoughts, and thus truth is subjective. Kant lived in the 18th C. in the 20th century, two remarkable scholars who supported the epistemology include Jean Piaget and John Dewey. John Dewey (1929) argued that action is important in the acquisition of knowledge. Jean Piaget was the first person to label the term constructionism to the epistemology in 1955. Ever since the epistemology has become common among scholars especially in the field of psychology.