What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Existentialism vs Positivism - What's the difference?

existentialism | positivism |

As nouns the difference between existentialism and positivism

is that existentialism is a twentieth-century philosophical movement emphasizing the uniqueness of each human existence in freely making its self-defining choices while positivism is a doctrine that states that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method, refusing every form of metaphysics.

existentialism

Noun

(en noun)
  • (philosophy, not countable) A twentieth-century philosophical movement emphasizing the uniqueness of each human existence in freely making its self-defining choices.
  • The heyday of existentialism occurred in the mid-twentieth century.
  • (philosophy, countable) The philosophical views of a particular thinker associated with the existentialist movement.
  • Sartre's existentialism''' is atheistic, but the '''existentialism of Marcel is distinctly Christian.
  • * 1965 , Mikel Dufrenne, "Existentialism and Existentialisms," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research , vol 26 no 1 (Sep), p. 51.
  • Instead of Existentialism', we should speak of ' Existentialisms .

    Antonyms

    * noumenalism

    positivism

    English

    (wikipedia positivism) (legal positivism)

    Noun

  • (philosophy) A doctrine that states that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method, refusing every form of metaphysics.
  • Practical spirit, sense of reality, concreteness.
  • (legal) A school of thought in jurisprudence in which the law is seen as separated from moral values, the law is posited by lawmakers (humans).
  • Antonyms

    * (in philosophy) antipositivism

    Derived terms

    * logical positivism * legal positivism * neopositivism