Operationalism

Operationalism, also called operationism, holds that we do not know the meaning of a concept unless we have a method of measurement for it. It is commonly treated as a theory of meaning stating that a concept is synonymous with the corresponding set of operations used to measure it. The view was stated in The Logic of Modern Physics, published in 1927 by the American physicist P. W. Bridgman of Harvard University, who probably never meant to advance a precise and universal theory of meaning; his writings were reflections of a physicist rooted in experimental practice. As his ideas spread they were shaped into a general doctrine that found advocates among physicists and those inspired by American pragmatism and logical positivism, and it became especially influential in the methodological debates of psychology, where behaviorists used it against introspective approaches. Philosophers and psychologists now generally regard it as an extreme and outmoded position, although the early ideas on operational analysis are still considered worth exploring.