Warning: Use of undefined constant referer - assumed 'referer' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 102

Warning: Use of undefined constant host - assumed 'host' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 105

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 106

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 109
Positivism - Papers

Positivism

is a system of philosophy based on experience and experimental knowledge of natural sensation, in which metaphysics and theology are regarded as inadequate and imperfect systems of knowledge. (www.eb.com) The 19th-century French mathematician and philosopher Auguste Comte first called the doctrine , but some of the positivist concepts may be traced to the British philosopher David Hume, the French philosopher Duc de Saint-Simon, and the German philosopher Immanuel Kant.
Comte chose the word on the ground that it indicated the "reality" and "constructive tendency" that he claimed for the theory aspect of the doctrine. He was, in the main, interested in a reorganization of social life for ...

Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers

doctrines were later adapted and developed by the British social philosophers John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer and by the Austrian philosopher and physicist Ernst Mach.(www.encyclopedia.com)
During the early 20th century a group of philosophers who were concerned with developments in modern science rejected the traditional positivist ideas that held personal experience to be the basis of true knowledge and emphasized the importance of scientific verification. This group came to be known as logical positivists, and it included the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein and the British Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore. It was Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-philosophicus (1921; German-English parallel text, 1922) that proved to be of decisive influence in the rejection of metaphysical doctrines for their meaninglessness and the acceptance of empiricism as a matter of logical necessity.(www.eb.com)
The positivists today, who have rejected this so-called Vienna school of philosophy, ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.

Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE:

APA
MLA
Chicago
Turabian

Positivism. (2004, August 10). Retrieved February 16, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Positivism/12447

"Positivism." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 10 Aug. 2004. Web. 16 Feb. 2026. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Positivism/12447>

"Positivism." Essayworld.com. August 10, 2004. Accessed February 16, 2026. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Positivism/12447.

JOIN NOW

Join today and get instant access to this and 50,000+ other essays

PAPER DETAILS

Added: 8/10/2004 01:47:31 PM
Category: Miscellaneous
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 368
Pages: 2

Save |

Report

SHARE THIS PAPER

SAVED ESSAYS

Save and find your favorite essays easier