Definitions HQ

Positivism (n.) was ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the price Marxists paid for loyalty: a radical deafness to a whole series of questions science was posing.

Positivism (n.) dreamt ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠of a scientific language polished until stripped of every singularity, the perfect double, the unmisted mirror of a non-verbal knowledge — nature's faithful portrait.

Positivism (n.) suits ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠me if it means replacing totality with rarity, transcendental foundation with exteriority, and origin with accumulation — then I am quite happy to be a positivist.

Positivism (n.) and ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠eschatology are archaeologically inseparable — in Comte as in Marx: any discourse that tries to be both empirical and critical presents man as a truth at once reduced and promised.

Positivism (n.) and ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the metaphysics of the depths prop each other up: one keeps to phenomena, laws and regularities — never substances, essences or the beings that obey them — and the other attacks from the unknowable depth the first leaves behind.