Positivism, associated with Comte, holds that sense phenomena is the highest or the only form of knowledge.
I assume that sense phenomena here means that of the five traditional senses of sight, sound, scent, taste and touch.
But I will argue, as Buddhism claims, that mind is also a sense faculty. Like the other senses the mind has its own “objects”. Buddhism calls then mind-objects. Concepts and ideas can be considered the same as mind-objects.
The extended definition does not conflict with Comte’s – and in general, Western philosophy –more limited one. This broadening in my opinion helps makes more sense of how we understand these entities in relation to real physical reality objects.