Positivism

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Positivism \Pos"i*tiv*ism\, n.
     A system of philosophy originated by M. Auguste Comte, which
     deals only with positives. It excludes from philosophy
     everything but the natural phenomena or properties of
     knowable things, together with their invariable relations of
     coexistence and succession, as occurring in time and space.


     Such relations are denominated laws, which are to be
     discovered by observation, experiment, and comparison. This
     philosophy holds all inquiry into causes, both efficient and
     final, to be useless and unprofitable.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  positivism
       n 1: the form of empiricism that bases all knowledge on
            perceptual experience (not on intuition or revelation)
            [syn: {logical positivism}]
       2: a quality or state characterized by certainty or acceptance
          or affirmation [syn: {positivity}] [ant: {negativism}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  55 Moby Thesaurus words for "positivism":
     Marxism, animalism, atomism, behaviorism, bigotry,
     commonsense realism, dialectical materialism, dogmaticalness,
     dogmatism, down-to-earthness, earthiness, earthliness, empiricism,
     epiphenomenalism, freedom from illusion, hardheadedness,
     historical materialism, hylomorphism, hylotheism, hylozoism,
     infallibilism, lack of feelings, materialism, matter-of-factness,
     mechanism, natural realism, naturalism, new realism,
     opinionatedness, peremptoriness, physicalism, physicism,
     positive philosophy, positiveness, practical-mindedness,
     practicality, practicalness, pragmaticism, pragmatism, rationality,
     realism, reasonableness, representative realism, saneness,
     scientism, secularism, self-opinionatedness, sensibleness,
     sober-mindedness, substantialism, temporality, unidealism,
     unromanticalness, unsentimentality, worldliness
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  POSITIVISM, n.  A philosophy that denies our knowledge of the Real and
  affirms our ignorance of the Apparent.  Its longest exponent is Comte,
  its broadest Mill and its thickest Spencer.