Positivism

Positivism, philosophical theory of knowledge associated with the 19th-century French philosopher Auguste Comte. It holds that the observable, or “positive,” data of sense experience constitute the sole basis for assertions about matters of fact; only the truths of logic and mathematics are additionally admitted. The speculative claims of theology and metaphysics, regarded as the primitive antecedents of “positive” thought, are discounted.

See also: Comte, Auguste.