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Relativism vs Positivism - What's the difference?

relativism | positivism |

As nouns the difference between relativism and positivism

is that relativism is the theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them 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.

relativism

Noun

  • (uncountable, philosophy) The theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them.
  • (countable, philosophy) A specific such theory, advocated by a particular philosopher or school of thought.
  • * 2008 , Paul Boghossian, “Replies to Wright, MacFarlane and Sosa,” Philosophical Studies , vol. 141, no. 3, p. 413:
  • Following Gilbert Harman’s lead, my own formulation of relativism' about the normative domain was based on the classic examples of thoroughgoing ' relativisms drawn from physics.

    See also

    * alternativism * pragmatism

    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