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Definition:
Positivism refers specifically the philosophy espoused by Auguste Comte and generally to
later philosophies which are based on that.
Comte argued that human thought proceeds through three stages: theological, metaphysical, and positivistic. The first, theological, involves trying to explain all phenomena through the direct operation of supernatural beings and divine forces. The second, metaphysical, is similar to the first, but those supernatural beings have become more abstract and less anthropomorphic. In the final, positivistic, both supernatural beings and metaphysical abstractions are abandoned in favor of naturalistic, empirical explanations.
According to Positivism, sense perceptions are the only admissible basis for knowledge and thought. Everything outside of natural phenomena or properties of knowable things is excluded, and so highly speculative metaphysics and theology are rejected. Science forms the boundaries of human knowledge, and, as a consequence, positivism expresses great hope for the ability of science to solve human problems.
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