{"id":564,"date":"2012-07-30T13:54:20","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T18:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.brown.edu\/fivecenturiesofchange\/?page_id=564"},"modified":"2021-11-12T16:50:20","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T21:50:20","slug":"positivism","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/fivecenturiesofchange\/chapters\/chapter-4\/positivism\/","title":{"rendered":"Positivism"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The image of a Positivist Temple shows the plan to build a church in Rio de Janeiro. Courtesy of the John Hay Library, Brown University.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Positivist Church in downtown Rio still stands, and holds services, today. Photograph by Benjamin Moser.<\/p><\/div>\n

Positivism: An Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n

Positivism is a philosophical system based on the view that in the social and natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are the exclusive source of all worthwhile information. Positivism rejects speculative philosophy, that is, all problems, concepts and propositions of traditional philosophy related to being, substances, causes, etc., that can not be verified through empirical science. Claiming to be a fundamentally new, non-metaphysical philosophy, positivism declared that empirical science is the sole source of true knowledge.<\/p>\n

One of the earliest proponents of this new school of thought, Auguste Comte (1798\u20131857) introduced the term “positivism” in the 1820s. Comte viewed society as having progressed through three distinct phases: the theological, the metaphysical, and the scientific (or “positive”). He argued that knowledge should be understood as a historical process. Comte firmly believed that intellectual development was the primary cause of social change. It is precisely this socio-political dimension of Comte’s positivism that attracted such widespread interest during the nineteenth century.<\/p>\n

Positivism in Brazil<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Comte’s positivism captured the interest of many Latin American intellectuals who identified in positivism the keys to social reformation. In Argentina, Chile, and Cuba, positivism was harnessed as a force of liberal reform and modernization that rejected the influence of the Catholic Church. In Mexico, it had a direct influence on the education reforms under President Benito Juarez and was embraced by the regime of Porfirio Diaz, holding intellectual sway until the 1910 revolution.<\/p>\n

While positivism affected every Latin American country in the nineteenth century, its influence was nowhere as profound or widespread as in Brazil, where it gained support by criticizing the institutions of slavery, monarchy, and the Church as constraining the natural progress of the nation. One of the singular forces behind the spread of positivism in Brazil was the Positivist Church of Brazil, founded by Miguel Lemos and his brother-in-law Raimundo Teixeira Mendes, who had both studied with Comte in Paris. The Positivist Church attempted to control and direct the positivist movement, publishing thousands of tracts and pamphlets on wide-ranging social issues, though in reality it had only a small following and did not represent the views of positivists throughout Brazil. By the late 1870s, positivism had received such widespread currency that Comte’s concrete proposals for social reform, specifically his abolitionist and republican treatises, animated public zeal for modernization. The positivist contribution to these debates was to unite ideas for reformation in a systematic way.<\/p>\n