Positive Philosophy, a recent scheme of phi- losophy, on the basis of phenomenalism, founded by Auguste Comte of Paris. See Comte ; Positivism.
Positivism, a distinct, scientific habit of mind, reg- ulated by a characteristic principle, which was made the basis of an extensive and ambitious scheme of philos- ophy by Auguste Comte (see Comte), and which has matured, according to the intention of its author, into a sect, a creed, and a church, since the article on Comte was written. The term is applied to the intellectual habit, the characteristic principle, the philosophical procedure, and the consequent body of doctrine. The English Positivists, who have latterly been the most zealous propagators of the positive philosophy, and have very recently issued a complete translation of the Systeme de la Politique Positive, revolt from some of the later speculations of their founder and hierophant, by re- jecting his theological and ecclesiastical reconstructions, and all the sentimental mimicry of the papal organiza- tion, which was elaborated under the quaint influence of Mme. Chlotilde de Yaux. They adhere rigidly to the distinctive principle of the positive philosophy, which constitutes its sole ratio essendi and determines its consistent developments and applications. It is the first duty, then, to ascertain what this principle is.
The epithet Positive has been employed in various significations in the history of philosophy, as will be shown at the close of this notice. The term Positivism is employed by the school of the Positivists and by its founder to denote the strict confinement of speculation and the rigorous limitation of knowledge to observed facts, and to their habitual antecedences, concomitances, and sequences. It eschews all laws but those of recog- nised association. It involves the exclusion of causes ami effects; of supernatural, spiritual, or metaphysical agencies; of hidden forces, latent qualities, and imma- terial essences. It contracts the intelligible universe within the sphere of the phenomenal. It refrains from investigating the intrinsic constitution of things, and prohibits any expat iation beyond the reach of purely scientific analysis and construction. It does not deny, but it ignores, extrudes, and repudiates as inaccessible and imaginary whatever transcends the observed facts and the logical deductions therefrom. It is the pure method of inductive science, accepted as practically suf- ficient and complete, though without asserting that it is necessarily exhaustive. Whatever lies beyond this cir- cle is not only unknown, but incognizable and inappre- hensible— not merely imperfect and uncertain, but im- palpable and delusive.
It is impossible to give a sharp, precise, and formal definition of Positivism, because it is chiefly discrim- inated from other philosophical schemes by what it ex- foliates, by its limitations rather than by its comprehen- sion. One of the most eminent and earnest of living Positivists has within the late months given an ex-
POSITIVISM
438
POSITIVISM
planation of the character of the doctrine, which it may
be well to cite as an authoritative testimony :
"Snffice it that we mean by the positive method of n ul we will now use the term in a sense no] limited to the social construction ofComte) that method which would base life and conduct, as well as knowledge, upon such evidence as ran he referred to logical canons of proof, which would place all thai occupies man in a ho- inof/'iir. On the other hand, this method
: ... iv. , in //, /x.tlasrs. not to lie tested by any known
logical canon familiar to science, whether the hypothesis iport from intuition, aspiration, or general plaus- ibility. And again, this method turns aside from ideal standards which avow themselves to be lawless, which profess to transcend the field of law. We Bay, life and hall Maud for us wholly on a basis of law, and i ntirely in thai region n it physical,
and social science) where we are free to nse our e in the methods Known to us as in lo'.'ie. methods which the intellect can analyze" T'rodoi ic . The Soul ii"<! Future Life, in The Nineteenth <; n- tury, No. -1, dune, LST7, art vii, p. 624, 625).
Mr. Harrison's contemplation is here, as will be read- ily conjectured, directed specially to the ethical devel- opments of Positivism; bul such language so applied reveals the severity with which everything bul the proc- esses and products of scientific observation and logical conclusion is excluded from the arena of the Positivist This accords perfectly with the determination of the dogmatic principle originally formulated in the Pkilo- sophi Positive (tome i, p. 4, 5).
"In line, iii the Positive state the human mind, recog- nising the impossibility of attaining absolute notions, re- nounces the invest JL'at ion of the origin and destination of the universe, and in.piirv into the intrinsic causes of phe- nomena, and attaches itself instead solely to the discov- ery, by judicious combina' : ■•!' nais. ■ i n i i -_r and observa- tion, of their effective laws thai is, to the discovery of their invariable relations of succession and resemblance. The explication of facts thus reduced to its real terms is, thenceforward, nothing more than the connection estab- lished between the diverse phenomena and certain gen- eral fans whose number tends to be constantly diminish- ed by the progress of science."
This procedure lias long been regarded as alone ap- propriate in the domain of physical science, and as equally appropriate, within the limits of its applicabil- ity, in speculative science. Ii formswhal is commonly regarded as the Baconian philosophy or the Baconian redintegration of philosophy. Positivism, however, both in the conception of the father of the system and in the doctrine and practice of his followers, extends its range so as to embrace and enclose all departments of knowledge and action, to profess itself the sole and ex- clusive method; and to stigmatize and repudiate what- ever will not submit to its jurisdiction or remains be- yond its reach. Indeed, in the elaboration of the sys- tem by Comte all its applications to the exact sciences were regarded as merely preliminary to social recon- struction, and to the establishment of a comprehensive and diversified ethical doctrine for public and private guidance. In this light il is still viewed by the exist- ing scl 1 of Positivists, notwithstanding their rejec- tion of much of i be theological reverie of Comte.