Empiricism, rationalism and positivism in library and information science
| Date | 01 February 2005 |
| Published date | 01 February 2005 |
| Pages | 130-155 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410510578050 |
| Author | Birger Hjørland |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Empiricism, rationalism and
positivism in library and
information science
Birger Hjørland
Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance and influence of the
epistemologies: “empiricism”, “rationalism” and “positivism” in library and information science (LIS).
Design/methodology/approach – First, outlines the historical development of these
epistemologies, by discussing and identifying basic characteristics in them and by introducing the
criticism that has been raised against these views. Second, their importance for and influence in LIS
have been examined.
Findings – The findings of this paper are that it is not a trivial matter to define those epistemologies
and to characterise their influence. Many different interpretations exist and there is no consensus
regarding current influence of positivism in LIS. Arguments are put forward that empiricism and
positivism are still dominant within LIS and specific examples of the influence on positivism in LIS are
provided. A specific analysis is made of the empiricist view of information seeking and it is shown that
empiricism may be regarded as a normative theory of information seeking and knowledge
organisation.
Originality/value – The paper discusses basic theoretical issues that are important for the further
development of LIS as a scholarly field.
Keywords Epistemology,Libraries, Information science, Philosophy
Paper type Conceptual paper
1. Introduction
Empiricism is the view that experiences, observations or sense data are the only or the
most important way of acquiring knowledge. Rationalism is the view that rational
intuitions are the most important way of acquiring knowledge. Positivism is today
mostly regarded as a form of empiricism, but historically this is not the case. Logical
positivism was a twentieth century attempt to combine empiricism and rationalism. In
the social sciences and in library and information science (LIS) positivism has been
associated with the question concerning the relative values of scientific versus
humanistic approaches, although it is wrong just to associate positivism with scientific
methods or interpretative methods with the humanities.
Empiricism, rationalism and positivism are important concepts in the philosophy of
science and thus also in all specific sciences including LIS. They are often interpreted
differently and considerable variations exist in descriptions of their nature and their
influence in LIS. This is the reason this paper takes a deeper look at these concepts and
their meaning in general as well as in a LIS context.
One misunderstanding is the confusion of empiricism with empirical studies.
Empiricism and positivism do not have a monopoly on empirical studies, but represent
specific views on how studies should be done. The concepts of empiricism, rationalism
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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JDOC
61,1
130
Accepted 6 October 2004
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 61 No. 1, 2005
pp. 130-155
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/00220410510578050
and positivism are important for LIS in two ways: they are important for how library
and information researchers approach their objects of research (e.g. by preferring
quantitative or qualitative research methods). Much more important is, howev er, their
importance for how those objects themselves are constituted.
A large part of the paper is devoted to a presentation of the paradoxical relation
between empiricism and the use of literature as sources of information (a motto of
empiricism is “read nature not books”). Empiricism thus implies a normative theory of
information needs and use, a fact that has been overlooked in LIS. This is but one
example of the close relations between substantial theories in LIS on the one hand and
epistemologies like empiricism, rationalism and positivism on the other. Based on the
theoretical clarification in the first part the paper of what empiricism, rationalism and
positivism mean and of the criticism raised against these positions, the final part of the
paper addresses selected present-day research problems in LIS, which are shown to be
closely associated with positivism: inter-indexer consistency studies and relevance
research.
2. Historical sketch
Questions concerning the nature of knowledge and inquiry go far back in civilisation,
and names like Plato (429-347 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC) are important for
distinguishing between different approaches such as rationalism and empiricism. Plato
emphasised logical intuition, while Aristotle, to a much larger extent, emphasised
empirical investigations.
The scientific revolution of the seventeenth century may be seen as an important
milestone, a growing opposition to mysticism and the belief in supernatural ways of
being informed. During that period the scientific experiment came to occupy a
dominating role in science. The scientific method(s) also substituted the belief that
some authorities should be believed without critical examination. A popular
interpretation of the scientific revolution and the scientific method is that it is based
on observations as the sole method in science (i.e. empiricism). This view of scientific
methods is, however, not without problems and has never been universally accepted.
Classical rationalists rejected the importance of observations in research and
maintained that all observations presuppose clear concepts that cannot be empirically
derived. Philosophers and scientists have been and are still divided regarding their
view of observations and experiences in science. Modern empiricism developed like
classical rationalism from different ways of drawing epistemological lessons from the
scientific revolution consummated by Newton. Together, rationalism and empiricism
constitute the two main tendencies of European philosophy in the period between
scholasticism and Kant. Empiricism has been connected to British thinkin g,
Rationalism to Continental thought (see Garrett and Barbanell, 1997, p. ix).
Classical British empiricists were John Locke (1632-1704), George Berkeley
(1685-1753), David Hume (1711-1776) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), among others.
In the twentieth century they were followed by figures like Bertrand Russell and the
logical empiricists[1]. The empiricists are mutually very different and therefore the
term empiricism itself is somewhat loose, which is the reason why some philosophers
believe that it is not a meaningful or fruitful concept.
Classical continental rationalists were Rene
´Descartes (1596-1650), Benedict de
Spinoza (1632-1677) and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716).In the twentieth
Empiricism,
rationalism and
positivism
131
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