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positivist

American  
[pahz-i-ti-vist] / ˈpɑz ɪ tɪ vɪst /

adjective

  1. relating or adhering to positivism as a philosophical system.

  2. relating or adhering to a theory of law based on the authority of the lawmaker rather than on ethical considerations that govern or precede the law.


noun

  1. someone who adheres to positivism as a philosophical system.

  2. someone who adheres to a theory of law based on the authority of the lawmaker rather than on ethical considerations that govern or precede the law.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Drawing on positivist philosophy and Darwinian biology, such thinkers insisted, as some 21st-century neurophysiologists and evolutionary psychologists do, that free will is nothing but an illusion.

From Washington Post ● May 7, 2020

Their ideas reflect not only the findings but also the values of those who have for too long commanded the science system: positivist, reductionist and focused on dominating nature.

From Nature ● Oct. 7, 2019

In the same essay, Lyotard actually distinguishes between two different types of knowledge: the "positivist" kind, that is applicable to technology; and the "hermenutic" kind of knowledge.

From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2019

Hart took up the positivist stance that law is one thing, morality another, and to muddle the two disserves clear thinking about both.

From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2015

Sense of homogeneity, or our positivist illusion of the unknown—and the fate of all positivism.

From The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort

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