Positivism does not allow one to take statistical evidence as proof (because it's not, mathematically speaking).
From wikipedia's definition:
Positivism is a philosophy of science based on the view that information derived from logical and mathematical treatments and reports of sensory experience is the exclusive source of all authoritative knowledge, and that there is valid knowledge (truth) only in scientific knowledge. Verified data received from the senses are known as empirical evidence.
Does global warming evidence satisfy the absolute standard of "empirical evidence" ? Well empirical evidence requires that data be produced according to the following process :
1) hypothesize
2) produce an experiment
3) accept/reject hypothesis (and goto 1, if possible)
Obviously experiments verifying global warming, or any significant part of climate theory are not possible, since we only have one earth and we can't quite produce another one with different levels. Nor are we allowed to assume that past data sufficiently isolates the factor being experimented with. Even if that were true, it is not possible to directly observe global warming without introducing potentially incorrect (or known incorrect) assumptions, like the central limit theorem.
A positivist would reject global warming, insisting only that we don't know, and that we can't know, because it's impossible to produce empirical evidence indicating either way. Since we don't even have direct measurements of the world getting warmer, only statistical proof, a positivist wouldn't even agree the world is warmer now than 100 years ago.
This sort of thing is why positivism was rejected as a viable philosophy. As your article described, this happened in programming, by the rejection of pure functional programming. But it also happened in science. The only remaining sciences that use positivism as a test of truth is first-order logic. Even second-order logic requires a less stringent standard.
From wikipedia's definition: Positivism is a philosophy of science based on the view that information derived from logical and mathematical treatments and reports of sensory experience is the exclusive source of all authoritative knowledge, and that there is valid knowledge (truth) only in scientific knowledge. Verified data received from the senses are known as empirical evidence.
Does global warming evidence satisfy the absolute standard of "empirical evidence" ? Well empirical evidence requires that data be produced according to the following process : 1) hypothesize 2) produce an experiment 3) accept/reject hypothesis (and goto 1, if possible)
Obviously experiments verifying global warming, or any significant part of climate theory are not possible, since we only have one earth and we can't quite produce another one with different levels. Nor are we allowed to assume that past data sufficiently isolates the factor being experimented with. Even if that were true, it is not possible to directly observe global warming without introducing potentially incorrect (or known incorrect) assumptions, like the central limit theorem.
A positivist would reject global warming, insisting only that we don't know, and that we can't know, because it's impossible to produce empirical evidence indicating either way. Since we don't even have direct measurements of the world getting warmer, only statistical proof, a positivist wouldn't even agree the world is warmer now than 100 years ago.
This sort of thing is why positivism was rejected as a viable philosophy. As your article described, this happened in programming, by the rejection of pure functional programming. But it also happened in science. The only remaining sciences that use positivism as a test of truth is first-order logic. Even second-order logic requires a less stringent standard.