A Critical Analysis of Auguste Comte's Positivism for Islamic Digital Research

Mahmud Yunus Mustofa (Walisongo Islamic State University)
Nadhifah Nadhifah (Walisongo Islamic State University)
Abdul Djamil (Walisongo Islamic State University)
Muhammad Faqih Irsyad (Flinders University)

Islamic Review : Jurnal Riset dan Kajian Keislaman
Vol 12 No 1 (2023): April 2023

Auguste Comte's Positivism, a philosophical paradigm that originated in the early 19th century, has been widely discussed and debated among scholars in various fields. In recent years, this issue has gained increasing attention in the context of Islamic digital research. This paper aims to critically analyze Comte's Positivism and its impact on Islamic digital research. In Islamic digital research, Positivism has been criticized for its lack of cultural and historical context and its disregard for the role of ethics and values. This article illustrates how positivism's emphasis on empirical observation and data is compatible with the Islamic digital research paradigm. Given the vast data generated by digital technologies, the scientific method provides a convincing foundation for comprehending complicated phenomena in the digital world. Findings indicate that applying positivism as a research paradigm in digital research is beneficial. However, digital researchers are advised to be cautious of the weaknesses of the paradigm they would adopt for a study.