<P> Positivism is part of a more general ancient quarrel between philosophy and poetry, notably laid out by Plato and later reformulated as a quarrel between the sciences and the humanities, Plato elaborates a critique of poetry from the point of view of philosophy in his dialogues Phaedrus 245a, Symposium 209a, Republic 398a, Laws 817 b-d and Ion . Wilhelm Dilthey (1833--1911) popularized the distinction between Geisteswissenschaft (humanities) and Naturwissenschaften (natural sciences). </P> <P> The consideration that laws in physics may not be absolute but relative, and, if so, this might be more true of social sciences, was stated, in different terms, by G.B. Vico in 1725 . Vico, in contrast to the positivist movement, asserted the superiority of the science of the human mind (the humanities, in other words), on the grounds that natural sciences tell us nothing about the inward aspects of things . </P> <P> Positivism asserts that all authentic knowledge allows verification and that all authentic knowledge assumes that the only valid knowledge is scientific . Thinkers such as Henri de Saint - Simon (1760--1825), Pierre - Simon Laplace (1749--1827) and Auguste Comte (1798--1857) believed the scientific method, the circular dependence of theory and observation, must replace metaphysics in the history of thought . Émile Durkheim (1858--1917) reformulated sociological positivism as a foundation of social research . </P> <P> Wilhelm Dilthey (1833--1911), in contrast, fought strenuously against the assumption that only explanations derived from science are valid . He reprised the argument, already found in Vico, that scientific explanations do not reach the inner nature of phenomena and it is humanistic knowledge that gives us insight into thoughts, feelings and desires . Dilthey was in part influenced by the historicism of Leopold von Ranke (1795--1886). </P>

Who proposed positive method in social science research