The New Positivism
A Hegelian Critique
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23309373 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrew Burnside (0000-0003-2754-1600, New Jersey Institute of Technology, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophy & Social Criticism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0191-4537 • E-ISSN: 1461-734X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/01914537261454425 |
| OpenAlex | W7170074636 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 46 |
Big data and empirical social science share an often-subterraneous assumption, namely, positivism. Some of their jointly hidden premises are that experiences, preferences, and culture are all equally quantifiable, testable, and measurable. Further, their view is a reification of the status quo, a harmonistic view of society. On the other hand, the critical view espouses social antagonism , the view that society essentially consists of a struggle between groups. Critical theory argues against the critical rationalists that positivism (and thus, empirical social science) is guilty of a political agnosticism and, therefore, services the ends of bureaucracy and administration. This paper draws out some latent beliefs of big data as a new version of positivism and shows that big data inherits the problems of empirical social science. In particular, algorithms and data analytics for predictive policing, aggressively personalized advertisement, and prison recidivism stand out as substantial evidence of the new positivism that surges in administered society.
Agnosticism · Big data · Bureaucracy · Hegelianism · Politics · Positivism · Reification (Marxism) · Social theory · Big Data Technologies and Applications · Computational and Text Analysis Methods · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
Theodor W. Adorno und Alfred Sohn-Rethel
Hegel's Ethical Thought
Hegel's Theory of the Modern State
The Theory of the Leisure Class
Algorithms of Oppression
The Attention economy
Theodor W. Adorno, Artificial Intelligence, and Democracy in the Postdigital Era
Totally Administered Heteronomy
A world of Palantir – ontological politics in the Danish police’s POL-Intel
Vice and inadequacy
Foundations of Hegel’s Social Theory
Intellectual and Manual Labour
Critique of Forms of Life
ChatGPT is bullshit
Associations between exposure to digital food marketing and food consumption in adolescence
Predictive Policing and the Platformization of Police Work
Negative Organicism
B. F. Skinner and technology’s nation
The seer and the seen
The Lebensform as organism
Hegel's Social Philosophy
Governing the Algorithmic City
Critical Questions for Big Data
From digital positivism and administrative big data analytics towards critical digital and social media research
Immanent Critique as the Core of Critical Theory
In Palantir we trust? Regulation of data analysis platforms in public security
Adorno in America
The Positivist Dispute after 50 years - An unrepentant 'positivist' view
Adorno's position in the positivism dispute
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |