Definition of operationalism in English:
operationalism
noun ɒpəˈreɪʃ(ə)n(ə)lɪz(ə)mˌäpəˈrāSHənlizəm
mass nounPhilosophy A form of positivism which defines scientific concepts in terms of the operations used to determine or prove them.
Example sentencesExamples
- Milne's metaphysical views were based in positivism, most especially in operationalism: only those objects whose properties could be directly revealed by some observational procedure, or operation, were to be counted among the real.
- Third, Carnap realizes that the principle of operationalism is too restrictive.
- According to operationalism, STR changes the meanings of the concepts of space and time from the classical conception.
- Notions like falsification, verification, and operationalism seem like gloves that ill-fit the hand of Nature, however fashionable they may appear on the hands of idealized scientists.
- A large number of people said that the real was the measurable, which could be a sign of realism, operationalism, or hermeneutical realism.
Derivatives
noun & adjective
Philosophy This suffices to qualify stress as a permissible concept from the operationalist standpoint.
Example sentencesExamples
- He adopted a constructivist interpretation of mathematics which bordered upon formalism, and regarded this as the natural complement to his operationalist philosophy in physics.
- Those who said that these were real because they were useful were instrumentalists, while those who said they were real to the extent that they correlated with measurements were operationalists.