Philosophy, Epistemology, and Positivism Researches

Abstract

The term ‘philosophy’ has been defined variedly by different philosophers based on their perspectives. In western perspective, it means attainment and enlightenment of things as they actually be. This is the same meaning as the term ‘wisdom’ which means finite knowledge, no need to pursue any more knowledge. In human personality perspective, the term ‘philosophy’ means personal attitudes towards life and universe that are expressed in a form of behaviors or an ability to use intelligence for judging emerging or suspicious problems. Epistemology is considered a part of philosophy. It focuses on studying or investigating about natures of knowledge knowable by human. It aims to answer problems and find out relationship between human beings and the world.   Post-positivism considers that truth has an objective nature. In a research process, researchers would encounter traps of their own values and biases, making it hard to carry out a research in a really neutral way because they always have values and biases that would affect staying objective in carrying out a research. Interactions between researchers and participants (samples) is unavoidable, so researches are always affected by such interactions more or less depending on situations and awareness of each researchers. Therefore, researchers and participants (samples) should be independent to each other. Researchers should be objective, aiming mainly to seek truth. Most researchers employ quantitative research methodology. They conduct experiments, have research controls, and verify hypotheses. They rely on quantitative research methodology and statistical, mathematical, and logical analysis because they believe that everything can by tested and proved empirically.