Who founded positivism in philosophy?

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Positivism Scottish philosopher David Hume, oil on canvas by Allan Ramsay, 1766; in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.

The French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857) is recognized as the founder of positivism in philosophy.12

Comte originated the approach, which identifies genuine knowledge as the product of empirical observation and experiment, and he is credited with naming and systematizing the movement. His work, most notably the Cours de philosophie positive, established the foundational principles of positivism, including the rejection of metaphysics and the assertion that knowledge should be based strictly on the data of experience. While the term "positivism" itself stems from his early mentor, Claude-Henri, comte de Saint-Simon, it was Comte who developed it into a distinctive philosophical ideology and movement.123