Definition of "operationalism" [operationalism]

• Philosophy The view that all theoretical terms in science must be defined only by their procedures or operations. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "You can find Paul Samuelson talking about Mach and "operationalism" and econometrics and all sorts of philosophy of science whooee -- the picture of "real" science that Samuelson had in his head."
• "As Donald Gillies (1972, 6 “ 7) emphasizes, if we accept the most extreme kind of operationalism, there is no point in asking whether a measurement method is valid; if the measurement method defines the concept and there is nothing more to the meaning of the concept, the measurement method is automatically valid, as a matter of convention or even tautology."
• "Such operationalism would not destroy systematic unity; on the contrary, it is an optimal strategy for achieving as much systematic unity as nature would allow, in a strongly empiricist system of knowledge."