POSITIVISM ( from OF.. Fr. positif, from Lat. positirus, settled by arbitrary appointment. from porwre. to place). A term invented by Auguste Comte (q.v.) to designate his system of philosophy, inasmuch as that system purported to exclude all metaphysical theorizing and to confine itself to 'positive' scientific knowledge of facts. It attempted to reduce the whole universe to experiential terms, excluding supernatural and spiritual agencies, hidden forces and immaterial essences, and causation, regarded as a mysterious tie binding phenomena together. Instead of causes it looked for laws, i.e. the uniformities of coexistence and sequence among phenomena. When a certain uniformity has been discovered, no reason can he assigned. it claimed, for that uniformity. The uniformity is a fact given us by our experience, and reasons for facts do not exist. Though Comte invented the term posi tivism, he was not the first positivist. Indeed. views more or less fundamentally like his can he discovered in Greek philosophy, especially among the sophists. In modern times Hume (q.v.) deserves to be called a positivist by reason of his view of causation. although with Dime the reign of natural law was a subjective rather than an objective fact. This subjectivism differentiates him from the prominent positiv ists of to-day. Kant's philosophy in recent times has also given rise to a school of thinkers in Germany who are one with Comte in throwing aside all considerations of metempirical char acter and in confining all scientific knowledge to phenomena and actually observed relations be tween phenomena. Prominent among these Ger man thinkers are Laos (q.v.), Riehl (q.v.), T.
Ziegler, and F. Jodl. Allied with these are such thinkers as Schuppe, Rehmke, and Averarius, all differing from each other, but insisting that the task of philosophy is to state the highest laws of experience, and all denying that there is any thing behind experience. In England the ten dency of positivism has lately been to appeal to the feelings by the establishment of a church with ritual, ceremonials. and the like, all in the worship of humanity. This tendency has its point of departure in Comte's religion of human ity. The leaders of this movement have been R. Congreve and Frederic Harrison. Of the last generation Lewes (q.v.) was tile English pro tagonist of positivism. hut he was interested more in its philosophical than its religious side. In France E. Littnc and H. Taine have been the most noted positivists, while Renan was greatly influenced by Comte's doctrines. For bibliogra phy, see the article CoxtrE, AUGUSTE. Consult, also: Bridges, A General View of Positivism, (London, 1865) ; David (D. G. Croly), A Posi tivist Primer (New York, 1S71) : Balfour, The Religion of Humanity ( Ed inlinrgh. 1S85) ; Fond lee, Le MoureIlielit positiriste et la conception du monde (Paris, 1896) : Huxley, "Scientific As pects of Positivism." in his Lay Sermons (Lon don. 1871) : Laos. Idealism us owl Positirismus (Berlin, 1879) : Fiske. Outlines of Cosmic Phi losophy (Boston, 1S74) : Gruber, Der Positivis m/is row Tode Auguste Comtes Lis auf unser(' Toge (Berlin, 1891).