1. • noun - the form of empiricism that bases all knowledge on perceptual experience (not on intuition or revelation)
   • noun - a quality or state characterized by certainty or acceptance or affirmation and dogmatic assertiveness
2. • Philosophy.
   • A doctrine contending that sense perceptions are the only admissible basis of human knowledge and precise thought.
   • The application of this doctrine in logic, epistemology, and ethics.
   • The system of Auguste Comte designed to supersede theology and metaphysics and depending on a hierarchy of the sciences, beginning with mathematics and culminating in sociology.
   • Any of several doctrines or viewpoints, often similar to Comte’s, that stress attention to actual practice over consideration of what is ideal: “Positivism became the ‘scientific’ base for authoritarian politics, especially in Mexico and Brazil” (Raymond Carr).
   • The state or quality of being positive.

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