In sociological texts, it is simply referred to as naturalism and can be traced back to the philosophical thinking of Auguste Comte in the 19th century.
At the same time, it should not be identified too closely with positivism, since whilst the latter advocates the use of controlled situations like experiments as sources of scientific information, naturalism insists that social processes should only be studied in their natural setting.
A similar form of naturalism was applied to the scientific study of art and literature by Hippolyte Taine.
Broad support exists for the antipositivist claim that crucial qualitative differences mean that one cannot explain social phenomena effectively using investigative tools or even standards of validity derived from other natural sciences.
Additionally, actor-network theory has analyzed the social construction of the nature–society distinction itself.