Positivism

Introduction
The social positivism of Comte and Mill
The critical positivism of Mach and Avenarius
Logical positivism and logical empiricism
- The earlier positivism of Viennese heritage
  - Language and the clarification of meaning
  - The verifiability criterion of meaning and its offshoots
  - Other issues
- The later positivism of logical empiricism
  - The status of the formal and a priori
  - Developments in linguistic analysis and their offshoots
Criticisms and controversies

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images

Wilhelm Ostwald stands in his home laboratory surrounded by shelves of glass bottles and scientific equipment, holding an object and looking toward the camera.

At a Glance

positivism summary

Related Questions

How did Auguste Comte develop the philosophy of positivism?
How did Auguste Comte’s ideas contribute to the development of sociology?
How did Auguste Comte’s law of three stages describe intellectual development?
How did Comte arrange mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and sociology?
How did Comte believe scientific knowledge could guide social planning?
How did Comte believe the social sciences should study human society?
How did Comte model his ideal social order on the Roman Catholic Church?
How did Comte’s ideal society organize government and education?
How did Ernest Renan apply positivist methods to the study of religion?
How did Henri de Saint-Simon influence Auguste Comte?
How did Herbert Spencer contribute to positivist thought?
How did Hippolyte Taine use positivism to explain human behavior?
How did John Stuart Mill connect empiricism with scientific reasoning?
How did John Stuart Mill’s positivism differ from Auguste Comte’s?
How did logical empiricism change the goals of logical positivism?
How did logical positivism develop from earlier positivism?
How did logical positivism use the verifiability principle to test statements?
How did logical positivists distinguish analytic statements from synthetic statements?
How did logical positivists explain the status of mathematics and logic?
How did logical positivists interpret ethical value judgments?
How did positivism influence analytic philosophy?
How did positivism influence social science research methods?
How did the Vienna Circle influence logical positivism?
How does positivism connect knowledge with observation and experience?
What characterizes the metaphysical stage in Comte’s law of three stages?
What characterizes the positive stage in Comte’s law of three stages?
What characterizes the theological stage in Comte’s law of three stages?
What did Comte mean by social dynamics?
What did Comte mean by social statics?
What did Hippolyte Taine mean by race, milieu, and moment?
What historical conditions influenced Auguste Comte’s ideas about society?
What role did laws play in Comte’s scientific study of society?
Which social scientists were influenced by Auguste Comte’s positivism?
Who founded positivism in philosophy?
Who were the main members of the Vienna Circle?
Why did Comte believe humanity had entered the positive stage?
Why did Comte consider questions about ultimate reality unanswerable?
Why did Comte create a secular religion of humanity?
Why did Comte regard sociology as the highest science?
Why did Comte reject democracy in his plans for society?
Why did logical positivism decline as a distinct philosophical movement?
Why did logical positivists classify many metaphysical statements as meaningless?
Why did the verifiability principle face criticism from philosophers?
What are some general characteristics of postmodernism?
What do postmodernists believe?
How is postmodernism related to relativism?
Where did Marxism come from?
Why is Marxism important?
How is Marxism different from other forms of socialism?
How does Marxism differ from Leninism?

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External Websites

Brown University Library - Positivism
The Open University - Open Research Online - Introduction to positivism, interpretivism and critical theory
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Legal Positivism
Simple Psychology - Positivism in Sociology: Definition, Theory and Examples
University of Warwick - Education Studies - Positivism
International Journal of Research in Social Sciences - Understanding Positivism in Social Resaerch: A Research Paradigm of Inductive Logic of Inquiry
University of Central Florida Pressbooks - Ideas in Mind - Positivism and the Progress of Science
Humanist Heritage - Positivism
Colorado Community College SystemÂ’s Open Textbook - PPSC PHI 1011: The Philosopher's Quest - Positivism
Open Library Publishing Platform - Positivism
University of California, Berkeley - Department of Sociology - The Paradox of Positivism
Osgoode Digital Commons - Positivism and Conventionalism (PDF)
Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research - Locating Positivism in Social Science Research: An Approach or a Movement? (PDF)
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Positivism, Post-Positivism and Interpretivism
The Victorian Web - Auguste Comte, Positivism, and the Religion of Humanity
DigitalCommons at University of Nebraska - Lincoln - The Use of Empiricism, Rationalism and Positivism in Library and Information Science Research (PDF)

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

Positivism

philosophy

Written by

Herbert Feigl

Professor of Philosophy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1941–71; Director, Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, 1953–71. Original member of the Vienna Circle, which developed the Positivist...

Herbert Feigl

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 4, 2026 •History

Positivism, in Western philosophy, generally, any system that confines itself to the data of experience and excludes a priori or metaphysical speculations. More narrowly, the term designates the thought of the French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857). As a philosophical ideology and movement, positivism first assumed its distinctive features in the work of Comte, who also named and systematized the science of sociology. It then developed through several stages known by various names, such as empiriocriticism,...

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