A trick to using malapropism is to ensure that the two words (the original and the substitute) sound similar enough for the reader to catch onto the intended switch and find humor in the result.
Positivism is a philosophical theory stating that positive knowledge is based on natural phenomena and their properties and relations. Thus, information derived from sensory experience, interpreted through reason and logic, forms the exclusive source of all authoritative knowledge.
In contemporary sociology, positivism is based on four main ârulesâ that define what constitutes valid knowledge and what types of questions may be reasonably asked (Bryant 1985): 1  The rule of empiricism: We can only know about things that are actually given in experience.