logical positivism
a philosophical perspective that is committed to the principle of verification, which holds that the meaning and truth of all nontautological statements are dependent on empirical observation. In the early 20th century, the positivists of the Vienna Circle sought to establish the essential unity of logic, philosophy, and science and to distinguish these disciplines from others such as metaphysics, ethics, and religion, which were dismissed for their speculative character. The positivist view of science was influential during the period in which psychology emerged as a science and has had a recognizable influence on the discipline. This is most pronounced in behaviorism and in psychology’s commitment to empirical scientific methods. See positivism. See also physicalism; postpositivism; reductionism.