positivism.

1. An approach emphasizing empirical knowledge and scientific methods while rejecting or restricting certain metaphysical claims.

2. A legal approach identifying law through recognized social sources rather than its moral merit alone.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• philosophical positivism
• forms of positivism

On the page

Philosophical positivism shaped the account of what counted as legitimate evidence.

Different forms of positivism used different criteria for meaningful claims.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: institutional and conceptual change, philosophical orientation, qualification of recurrence and degree. Disciplines: academic writing, philosophy, cross-disciplinary analysis. Commonness: moderately common.