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POSITIVISM
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A quality or state characterized by certainty or acceptance or affirmation and dogmatic assertiveness
Synonyms:
positiveness; positivism; positivity
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("positivism" is a kind of...):
quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "positivism"):
assertiveness; self-assertiveness (aggressive self-assurance; given to making bold assertions)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The form of empiricism that bases all knowledge on perceptual experience (not on intuition or revelation)
Synonyms:
logical positivism; positivism
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("positivism" is a kind of...):
empiricism; empiricist philosophy; sensationalism ((philosophy) the doctrine that knowledge derives from experience)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "positivism"):
Comtism (Auguste Comte's positivistic philosophy that metaphysics and theology should be replaced by a hierarchy of sciences from mathematics at the base to sociology at the top)
Derivation:
positivist (someone who emphasizes observable facts and excludes metaphysical speculation about origins or ultimate causes)
positivistic (of or relating to positivism)
