ABSTRACT
It is my aim in this chapter to describe the way in which a philosophical system, such as positivism, can function as an ideology for science and other social practices. I want to focus on positivism because of its intrinsic historical importance; because the impasse in contemporary philosophy of science diagnosed in chapter 1 takes the form of an incomplete critique of it; because it continues to inform the philosophy, and to an extent the practice, of the human sciences (as noted in chapter 2.2); because it describes an analytical limit or pole with respect to which many other philosophies can be defined and their modus operandi delineated and because many other philosophies tacitly presuppose it, even when nominally and perhaps virulently opposed to it.
