Glossary

Definitions of terms used throughout CountryReports.

This glossary contains 1,144 terms used throughout CountryReports — political, economic, cultural, historical, and geographic terminology referenced in country profiles and articles. Terms are drawn from authoritative sources including the Library of Congress.

positivism: The theory that genuine knowledge is acquired by science and that metaphysical speculation has no validity. Positivism, based largely on the ideas of the French philosopher Auguste Comte, was adopted by many Latin American intellectuals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chilean positivists promoted secular education, free inquiry, the scientific method, and social reform.