Ashleigh Gottschalt
University of Houston-Victoria
A common trait of being human is that we are always seeking out an explanation for how things work, and why it works that way; there is hardly any satisfaction in not knowing the details. When individuals create their own explanations they are called theories, and there are no right or wrong theories because theories are abstract explanations of reality. An interesting feature regarding theories is how they change over the course of time. Theories change over time because we increase in knowledge, the state of being aware of something, and are able to determine fact from opinion.
Reasoning on the basis of rational thinking was introduced during the Enlightenment time period. It was in this time period that Enlightenment thinkers presumed that humans could understand the world through science. The Enlightenment time period gave light to Classical and Neoclassical Theory.
Classical theory assumes that there is a consensus in society that human beings are free willed and are completely responsible for their own behavior, and by being free willed they choose to enter into the social contract. The social contract was …show more content…
By stating this it is clear to see that there are significant similarities with biological theories and positivist theories because they both take the stance that human behavior is determined, but where they differ is that biological theories go deeper into multiple aspects of genetic reasoning. Positivist theories doesn’t take into consideration a family tree. By branching out from positivist theories to see if there is more to a person’s behavior being determined is a sign of knowledge trying to be gained by studies different aspects of a criminal’s biological character. Biological theories does not truly connect with classical and neoclassical