Positivism Positivism refers to a set of methods of seeking knowledge which hold that the scientific method is the best approach in studying, understanding and investigating physical and social phenomena. Positivism heavily relies on observation and empirical study in the investigation of phenomena. It is an old philosophy which contents that the only authentic knowledge was the one obtained through the empirical method. The term was coined by early scholars cum philosophers like Auguste Comte in the 19 th century, but gained popularity in the 20 th century. In the 20 th century, it was referred to as logical positivism. Logical positivism was just positivism which de-emphasized the idea of the speculations in metaphysics and the attempts of Comnte’s positivism to reduce everything to logic. Later on, logical positivism attracted criticism from philosophers like Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper. The criticism by these philosophers led to the emergence of postpostivism, a philosophy which held that knowledge is based on human conjectures but not on solid foundations which are not easy to change. Later on, the philosophy was advanced to include the scientific method as way of obtaining knowledge (Rosenberg, 2007). These modifications reflected the changes in the industry, from focusing solely on quantitative research to the inclusion of qualitative, mixed methods and triangulation, which became very prominent in many social science researches like in psychology, political science, economics, and sociology. The modifications also reflected the changes of individual’s perceptions of truth and knowledge, which shifted from the thinking that truth was only based on religious doctrines to the thinking that truth was relative and it was therefore necessary to move from subjectivity to objectivity when dealing with the whole issue of truth (McNabb, 2010). Determinism Determinism is the argument that how things will be in the future is influenced by natural laws and how things are at the present. Determinism takes the position that everything which happens is supposed to happen only in that way and not in any other because everything is planned before and ours is just to follow the programming of our lives because there is nothing much we can do to change or manipulate the programming (Ekstrom, 2005.p. 210). Determinism arose as early as mid-1600, but gained popularity in the 20 th century. The philosophy originated with several philosophers, key among them including Baron d’Holbach, Martin Luther, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume and William James. Determinists argue that our genes greatly influence our lives. If we were born to be thieves or kleptomaniacs, we remain like that because it is in our genetic make-up. The same applies to intelligence. If we were born with a low intelligence quotient (IQ), then we stay like that for ever because it is in our genes which we have little or no influence over. Many determinists follow the laws of nature in supporting their arguments. They content that the decisions we make are always predetermined and are independent of other factors, and that given the same situation at a different time, we would still make the same decisions