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Machian positivism

the subjectivist form of positivism developed by Ernst Mach. Mach held, with other positivists, that sensory experience is the touchstone of knowledge; however, unlike most other positivists, he held that sensations do not faithfully represent the reality of an external world. Thus, from this antirealist perspective, empirical knowledge is subjective.

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Psychology term of the day

January 19th 2025

Emmert’s law

Emmert’s law

the principle that the perceived size of an afterimage is proportional to the distance of the surface on which it is projected: The larger the afterimage, the farther away it is. See size constancy. [Emil Emmert (1844–1913), German physiologist]