Positivism
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Positivism can have several meanings.
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[edit] Law
Legal positivism is a view which, in contrast to the natural law view, claims that a legal system can be defined independently of evaluative terms or propositions. Sometimes legal positivism is understood as the view that laws must be obeyed, whatever their content. The late Carlos Nino called the former view "methodological" and the latter "ideological," claiming that only the former was philosophically defensible.
Legal Positivism replaced the notion of Divine Law around the time of the Enlightenment. The theory is that the only law that should be imposed should be reconciled with effective power to implement its will. Extreme forms of positivism was captured in Adolf Hitler’s back frame; that we exist in a form of social Darwinism; a form of “survival of the fittest”.
[edit] Political Theory
A highly complex political theory which stems from the Enlightenment legacy. It refers to objective ways of knowing, that a process needs to be rational and scientific. It seeks to separate the subject from the values we apply to it, and argues that it is possible to develop value-free knowledge. An opposing tradition is that of postpositivism, which holds that knowledge cannot be value-free or neutral, and that our world is entrenched in meaning and history.
[edit] Literature
In Poland, the period in literature after the January 1863 Uprising until the turn of the 20th century is known as the Positivist period. Famous Polish Positivist writers included (some, for part of their careers):
- Adam Asnyk (1838-1897)
- Eliza Orzeszkowa (1841-1910)
- Bolesław Prus (1847-1912)
- Maria Konopnicka (1842-1910)
- Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846-1916)
- Gabriela Zapolska (1857-1921)
- Stefan Żeromski (1864-1925)
More broadly, Positivism was a major social ideology of Poland in that period and helped stimulate a growing interest in science, technology and economic development.
[edit] Philosophy
- positivism (philosophy) is an approach to the (philosophy of) science, deriving from Enlightenment thinkers like Pierre-Simon Laplace (and many others).
- logical positivism, a.k.a. neo-positivism and logical empiricism, was a school of philosophy developed in the 1920s by the Vienna Circle.
[edit] Social science
In sociology, anthropology, and other social sciences, the term social positivism was closely connected to naturalism and can be traced back to the philosophical thinking of Auguste Comte in the 19th century. In Comte's view, positivism is an approach to improving the world through science. Positivists believe that there is little if any methodological difference between social sciences and natural sciences; societies, like nature, operate according to laws.
| This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Positivism. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
