Positivism
noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A doctrine that states that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method, refusing every form of metaphysics. countable, uncountable
"The goal of positivism is to construct an objective, empirical and systematic foundation for knowledge. Given the above five tenets, it follows that positivists would hold that the world is composed of ‘facts’, or ‘sense data’ (or ‘atoms’)."
- 2 a quality or state characterized by certainty or acceptance or affirmation and dogmatic assertiveness wordnet
- 3 A school of thought in jurisprudence in which the law is seen as separated from moral values; i.e. the law is posited by lawmakers (humans). countable, uncountable
- 4 the form of empiricism that bases all knowledge on perceptual experience (not on intuition or revelation) wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"He never set out to work in the computer field or in business, and he certainly had no notions of becoming massively wealthy. He’s a multi-billionaire, for the record. No, what Reid Hoffman planned on becoming was a professor of philosophy. He’s still happy to expound upon the differences between analytic philosophers and continental philosophers. He knows his empiricism from his logical positivism, and as you’ll hear, computers found a way into his philosophy."
Etymology
Borrowed from French positivisme, from positif (“positive”). Equivalent to positive + -ism.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.