# Postpositivism > Empirical inquiry can pursue objectivity while accepting fallible evidence, theory-laden observation, and the influence of values. - HTML version: https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/postpositivism - Source: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/postpositivism-and-educational-research-9780847691227/ Postpositivism is a family of views that retains empirical inquiry while rejecting the hope for theory-free observation or certain foundations. It treats knowledge as fallible, methods as open to criticism, and objectivity as something inquiry works towards rather than a view from nowhere. The label covers thinkers who disagree about realism, method, and scientific progress. It names a broad response to positivism rather than one doctrine. Karl Popper's critical rationalism, Thomas Kuhn's history of science, and later work on the social organisation of criticism contribute different parts. ## What changes after positivism Logical positivists sought a firm relation between meaningful scientific claims and observation. Postpositivist accounts challenge the clean separation behind that programme. [Theory-ladenness](/ideas/theory-ladenness) shows that an observation depends on assumptions about instruments, categories, and relevance. The [Duhem-Quine problem](/ideas/falsifiability#a-test-examines-a-bundle) shows that a failed prediction tests a connected set of claims rather than one hypothesis in isolation. Kuhn's work adds history and scientific communities: standards, exemplary problems, and even some concepts can change through a [paradigm shift](/ideas/paradigm-shift). These arguments rule out a mechanical path from raw data to final truth. Evidence can still surprise us, expose errors, and favour one account over another. The judgement remains revisable. ## Objectivity without neutrality Objectivity comes from methods that make errors easier to find. Clear procedures, independent checks, risky tests, replication, and public criticism give claims more chances to fail for a reason that others can inspect. Values enter before a result is interpreted. They affect which questions are asked, which effects count as harmful, what threshold is acceptable, and whose experience is recorded. Pretending those decisions are absent hides them from criticism. Stating them allows others to test how much the conclusion depends on them. Consider a town deciding where to place a pedestrian crossing. Counts of foot traffic and collisions matter, but neither number chooses the policy on its own. The study must decide when to count, how to treat near misses, and how to weigh speed against access for people who avoid the dangerous road. A postpositivist approach does not discard the counts. It documents those decisions, seeks missing observations, compares explanations, and leaves the recommendation open to revision. ## Criticisms and limits Postpositivism's breadth can hide important differences. Calling a study "postpositivist" does not say what it assumes about realism, method, values, or scientific change. Fallibility can also become empty if a researcher never states what would prompt revision. Acknowledging that observations contain assumptions does not replace the work of testing those assumptions. The same is true of values. Naming a value makes it available for criticism, but does not resolve conflicts between values or show that a conclusion follows from the evidence. A postpositivist account must therefore state how it produced the evidence, which alternatives it tested, where judgement entered, and what result would change the claim. This stance does not supply one method for every question. It makes context and error correction part of empirical work. ## Sources * Phillips, D. C., and Nicholas C. Burbules. [*Postpositivism and Educational Research*](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/postpositivism-and-educational-research-9780847691227/). Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. * Boyd, Nora Mills, and James Bogen. ["Theory and Observation in Science"](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2024/entries/science-theory-observation/). *The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*, 2024. * Bird, Alexander. ["Thomas Kuhn"](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2022/entries/thomas-kuhn/). *The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*, 2022. * Longino, Helen E. *Science as Social Knowledge*. Princeton University Press, 1990\. ## Related ideas - [Critical rationalism](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/critical-rationalism.md): Knowledge grows through conjecture and criticism, with claims kept open to refutation rather than justified as certain. - [Empiricism](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/empiricism.md): Experience is the source of knowledge about the external world, while reason organises and draws conclusions from what experience supplies. - [Epistemology](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/epistemology.md): How we know what we claim to know, what justifies a belief, and when new evidence should change it. - [Falsifiability](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/falsifiability.md): A claim is falsifiable when some possible observation could count against it, though real tests examine a bundle of assumptions. - [Incommensurability](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/incommensurability.md): Rival frameworks may lack a complete common measure because their concepts, problems, or standards differ. - [Logical empiricism](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/logical-empiricism.md): A movement that used logic and analysis to connect scientific claims with public evidence and to clarify the role of philosophy. - [Mutation Testing](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/mutation-testing.md): Mutation testing changes program behaviour on purpose and checks whether the test suite notices. - [Paradigm shift](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/paradigm-shift.md): A scientific community can replace the shared examples, standards, and concepts that organise its normal work. - [Theory-ladenness](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/theory-ladenness.md): Observations depend on prior ideas about what to notice, how to measure it, and what the result means. ## Where it appears - Blog post: [The Philosophy of Data Science](https://robbiepalmer.me/blog/2022-03-02-the-philosophy-of-data-science.md) --- Markdown index of this site: https://robbiepalmer.me/llms.txt