From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpositivismpos‧i‧tiv‧is‧m /ˈpɒzətɪvɪzəm $ ˈpɑː-/ noun [uncountable] RPa type of philosophy based only on facts which can be scientifically proved, rather than on ideas —positivist adjective, noun [countable]
Examples from the Corpus
positivism• Empiricism and positivism have been put to flight in anthropology, philosophy, aesthetics, economics.• Some of these differences were rooted in the extent to which the writers embraced positivism or Idealism.• Furthermore, critical theory departs form positivism in understanding the facts of culture in terms of a social totality.• His target of attack here is positivism, which we can understand as the identification of natural science with knowledge itself.• Realism directed its challenge to the attempt to construct an autonomous science of law which was rooted in legal positivism.• There was all this talk of positivism.• His ideas on sovereignty and social organization seem to have been influenced by sociological positivism and by Duguit in particular.• Sociological positivism was one such method. 