Neopositivism and perception theory

Charles W. Tolman

pp. 25-45

in: Charles W. Tolman (ed), Positivism in psychology, Berlin, Springer, 1992

Abstract

As Charles Frankel (1965, p. 329) has reminded us: ""Positivism" is a double-barrelled word. It stands for a certain temper of mind as well as a particular system of philosophy." As a "temper of mind," positivism was 'suspicious of theological and metaphysical doctrines as covert attempts to vindicate things as they are" and urged that "human inquiry should be restricted to those questions to which fairly definite answers can be given" (Frankel, 1965, p. 329; similar descriptions are given by Simpson, 1969, p. 47, and by Abbagnano, 1967, p. 414).