Definitions for "POSITIVISM"
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.
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.
A philosophy of science which was proposed originally by August Comte in the early 19th century. Its primary purpose was to distinguish science from metaphysics and religion. Broadly, it accepts that: (a) scientific statements should be based on empirical observations and facts; (b) the (quantitative mostly) methods of the natural sciences can be extended to the study of social phenomena; (c) general, universal laws is the ultimate goal of scientific inquiry; i.e. the search for empirical regularities, for "law" and "order".
the form of empiricism that bases all knowledge on perceptual experience (not on intuition or revelation)
a quality or state characterized by certainty or acceptance or affirmation