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.

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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

A staunch positivist, Remi had refused to listen to the part of her gut that kept pumping bile, insisting that something was seriously wrong.

From Slate • Jan. 27, 2024

Alan Sokal, a mathematician at New York University and a leading positivist, once dared Dr. Latour to leap from Dr. Sokal’s 21st-floor apartment to test whether gravity was real or just a social construct.

From New York Times • Oct. 12, 2022

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

By his side was Padre Feijó, afterwards regent—incorruptible in morals and unyielding in will—the champion of federation and democracy, and the earliest Brazilian positivist.

From The South American Republics Part I of II by Dawson, Thomas C.