Evaldas Nekrašas is Professor Emeritus and Head of the Department of International Relations and Professor of Philosophy at Vilnius University. He is a fellow of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, and author of several books on philosophy.

• Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: The Notion of Positivism Part I: Development CHAPTER 1. Early Positivism The Divorce between Philosophy and Science Hume's Positivism Hume and Newton Impressions, Ideas, and Metaphysics Two Kinds of Knowledge Critical Analysis of Causality Certainty and Probability "Is" and "Ought" Moral Principles and Social Progress The Idea of Progress in the French Enlightenment CHAPTER 2. Classical or Social Positivism France after the Revolution Auguste Comte Plan of Positive Labors The Theological, Metaphysical, and Positive Mind The Hierarchy of Sciences Social Order and Social Progress Positive Polity and Positive Morality John Stuart Mill Mill and Comte: Allies and Opponents Logic and Methodology of Science Social and Natural Sciences Utility and Liberty The Positivist Movement in the 19th Century CHAPTER 3. From Classical to Modern Positivism Reappraisal of Positivism at the End of the 19th Century Mach's Empiriocriticism Poincare's Conventionalism Duhem's Hypothetism CHAPTER 4. Modern or Logical Positivism Revolution in Science and Philosophy The Vienna Circle and the Unity of Science Movement Moritz Schlick Philosophy as the Pursuit of Meaning Positivism and Realism Foundation of Knowledge Philosophy of Life and Ethics Rudolf Carnap Philosophy as Logical Analysis Formal and Empirical Sciences The Criterion of Empirical Significance The Structure of Scientific Knowledge The Probabilistic Appraisal of Hypotheses Scientific Humanism and Socialism Part II: Impact CHAPTER 5. Positivism: Its Critics and Rivals Positivism and Two of Its Adversaries: Nietzsche and Heidegger Positivism, Marxism, and Critical Theory Positivism and Pragmatism Positivism and Critical Rationalism Positivism and the Analytic Tradition Positivism, Kuhn, and Postmodernism CHAPTER 6. The Impact of the Positive Mind Outside Philosophy Positivism's Impact on the Natural and Social Sciences Positivism, Mathematics, and Physics Positivism's Effect on Psychology A Positive Economics Positivism's Influence on Sociology Positivism's Impact on Political Science Positivism-the Postpositivism Debate. Constructivism The Positive Mind and Law Positivism and Politics Positivism's Impact upon Literature, the Visual Arts, and Architecture The Positive Mind in Everyday Life. Positivism and Religion Bibliography Index

"The author does not want to confine positivism to an intellectual category but rather wants to expand the word’s application to include any kind of what he calls positive thinking and behavior. He speaks, for instance, of the reification and materialization of the positive mind in the artifacts of contemporary technological civilization. Cars, computers, skyscrapers, etc., which have been built using scientific knowledge, are the embodiments of the positive mind. The span of the project, from philosophy to material culture, shows how ambitious the book is. It begins with a definition of positivism, moves to the narration of particular expressions of positivism in the history of thought, from Hume to Logical Positivism, considers positivism in juxtaposition to other philosophical schools and traditions (e.g., Marxism, pragmatism, critical theory, critical rationalism, analytic philosophy, historical philosophy of science, Nietzsche and Heidegger, postmodern authors) and concludes with the influence of the positive mind on cultural phenomena such as law, science, art, politics, religion and everyday life. The most original part of the book is the part devoted to the impact of positivism on its critics and rivals. The book addresses a general audience and is informative and quite thorough in that respect".