IMPACT OF POSITIVISM ON LITERATURE, VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE

Positivism has made a significant influence on many schools of philosophy of the 19th and 20th centuries. But its influence spans even further - positivism also made an impact on natural and especially on social sciences, as well as on various fields of public and private life, such as law, politics and everyday life. A significant influence has been also made on arts. The latter is being analyzed in the article. The nature of influence depended on the historical epoch and the prevailing form of positivism and was quite diverse. Classical or sociological positivism made the biggest impact on literature. Positivism of the 20th century was attractive to writers because of its attention to facts and the steady development of society, collectivistic and altruistic ideals and progressive orientation. The influence of positivism can be seen in naturalistic writings of Emile Zola. The empirio-criticism of Ernst Mach made quite a different impact. Contrary to Auguste Comte, he emphasized not external but internal facts or, to be precise, considered such contraposition to be faulty, and made an impact on writers, such as James Joyce, Franz Katica, Robert Musil, who are usually called modernists. Desubstantialisation of subject, stream of consciousness, fusion of dream and reality are signs Mach's influence. They are also apparent in abstract art where Mach's ideas of visual space perception were exceptionally popular at the beginning of the 20th century. In turn, the influence of logical positivism is most visible in architecture which by members of the Vienna Circle was considered to be the most important of arts. Having been in close contact with representatives of the Bauhaus school, they made a significant contribution to the spread of constructivism and functionalism which correspond to the strict logical structures of logical positivism.