Positivism is a philosophy developed by Auguste Comte in the beginning of the 19th century, which stated that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge. It is sometimes referred to, in a pejorative way, as scientism. As an approach to the philosophy of science deriving from Enlightenment thinkers like Pierre-Simon Laplace (and many others), positivism was first systematically theorized by Auguste Comte, who saw the scientific method as replacing metaphysics in the history of thought, and who observed the circular dependence of theory and observation in science. Brazil's national motto, Ordem e Progresso ("Order and Progress") was taken from Comte's positivism, also influential in Poland. Paradoxically, positivism can not be used to validate itself. The Philosopher (detail), by Rembrandt Philosophy is a study that includes various diverse subfields such as aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics. ... Auguste Comte Auguste Comte (full name Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte) (January 17 (recorded January 19), 1798 - September 5, 1857) was a French positivist thinker and came up with the term of sociology to name the new science made by Saint-Simon. ... Look up pejorative in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Scientism is a relatively newly coined word that refers to certain epistemologies based on science. ... The philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of science, including the formal sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences. ... ... Pierre-Simon Laplace. ... The scientific method is a technique of investigation and acquisition of new knowledge, as well as the integration, elimination, and/or explanation of previous knowledge, based upon observable, measurable evidence. ... Plato and Aristotle, by Raphael (Sistine Chapel, Rome). ... A motto is a phrase or a short list of words meant to formally describe the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization. ...

The key features of positivism as of the 1950s, as defined in the "received view", are (Hacking, 1981): 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

1. A focus on science as a product, a linguistic or numerical set of statements;
2. A concern with axiomatization, that is, with demonstrating the logical structure and coherence of these statements;
3. An insistence on at least some of these statements being testable, that is amenable to being verified, confirmed, or falsified by the empirical observation of reality; statements that would, by their nature, be regarded as untestable included the teleological; (Thus positivism rejects much of classical metaphysics.)
4. The belief that science is markedly cumulative;
5. The belief that science is predominantly transcultural;
6. The belief that science rests on specific results that are dissociated from the personality and social position of the investigator;
7. The belief that science contains theories or research traditions that are largely commensurable;
8. The belief that science sometimes incorporates new ideas that are discontinuous from old ones;
9. The belief that science involves the idea of the unity of science, that there is, underlying the various scientific disciplines, basically one science about one real world.

In mathematics, axiomatization is the process of defining the basic axiomatic systems from which mathematical theories can be derived. ... Teleology (telos: end, purpose) is the supposition that there is design, purpose, directive principle, or finality in the works and processes of nature, and the philosophical study of that purpose. ...

See also

• Auguste Comte's positivist philosophy
• London Positivist Society
• Legal positivism
• Logical positivism
• Psychological positivism: Behaviourism
• Social positivism
• Scientism ("positivism" in a pejorative meaning)
• The positivist calendar was a calendar reform proposal by Comte in 1849.

Auguste Comte Auguste Comte (full name Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte) (January 17 (recorded January 19), 1798 - September 5, 1857) was a French positivist thinker and came up with the term of sociology to name the new science made by Saint-Simon. ... The London Positivist Society was a philosophical circle that met in London, England, between 1867 and 1974. ... Legal positivism is a school of thought in modern and contemporary jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. ... Logical positivism (later referred to as logical empiricism, rational empiricism, and also neo-positivism) is a philosophy that originated in the Vienna Circle in the 1920s. ... Behaviorism (or behaviourism) is an approach to psychology based on the proposition that behavior is interesting and worthy of scientific research. ... This article describes the term positivism as used in social sciences, especially within the science of sociology. ... Scientism is a relatively newly coined word that refers to certain epistemologies based on science. ... The positivist calendar was a proposal for calendar reform proposed by Auguste Comte in 1849. ... Various reforms to the Gregorian calendar currently used by most of the world have been proposed. ...

Reference

• Foundations of Futures Studies, Wendell Bell

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