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''The Logic of Modern Physics'' is a 1927
philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...
book by American physicist and Nobel laureate
Percy Williams Bridgman Percy Williams Bridgman (April 21, 1882 – August 20, 1961) was an American physicist who received the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the physics of high pressures. He also wrote extensively on the scientific method and on other as ...
. The book is notable for explicitly identifying, analyzing, and explaining operationalism for the first time, and coining the term
operational definition An operational definition specifies concrete, replicable procedures designed to represent a construct. In the words of American psychologist S.S. Stevens (1935), "An operation is the performance which we execute in order to make known a concept." F ...
. Widely read by scholars in the
social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...
, it had a huge influence in the 1930s and 1940s, and its major influence on the field of psychology in particular surpassed even that on methodology in physics, for which it was originally intended.


History

The Logic of Modern Physics is a 1927
philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...
book by American physicist and Nobel laureate
Percy Williams Bridgman Percy Williams Bridgman (April 21, 1882 – August 20, 1961) was an American physicist who received the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the physics of high pressures. He also wrote extensively on the scientific method and on other as ...
notable for explicitly identifying, analyzing, and explaining operationalism for the first time.Sarkar, Sahotra and Pfeifer, Jessica (2005) ''The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1'
p. 76
/ref>
Pragmatic Pragmatism is a philosophical movement. Pragmatism or pragmatic may also refer to: *Pragmaticism, Charles Sanders Peirce's post-1905 branch of philosophy * Pragmatics, a subfield of linguistics and semiotics *'' Pragmatics'', an academic journal i ...
philosophers like
Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for ...
in the 1870s had already advanced solutions to the related ontological problems. Also, Sir
Arthur Eddington Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (28 December 1882 – 22 November 1944) was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the lumi ...
had discussed notions similar to operationalization in 1920 before Bridgman.Eddington, A. (1920). '' s:Space Time and Gravitation''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bridgman's formulation, however, became the most influential.


Influence

Operationalism can be considered a variation on the positivist theme, and, arguably, a very powerful and influential one.Crowther-Heyck, Hunter (2005) ''Herbert A. Simon: The Bounds of Reason in Modern America'
p. 65
/ref> The book was widely read by scholars in the
social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...
, in which it had a huge influence in the 1930s and 1940s, In the social sciences, the main influence has been in psychology, (
behaviorism Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex evoked by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual ...
), where it has been even greater than that on the methodology in physics, for which it was originally intended.Green, Christopher D. (1992)
Of Immortal Mythological Beasts: Operationism in Psychology
' in ''Theory & Psychology'', 2, pp. 291–320
Examples of the influence on psychology in the 1930s and 1940s include Stanley Smith Stevens (''The Operational Basis of Psychology'' and ''The Operational Definition of Psychological Concepts''), and Clark L. Hull (''The Principles of Behavior: An Introduction to Behavior Theory'').Crowther-Heyck (2005
p. 352
note 18
Since then, it has been the central influence of the official
epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epi ...
governing psychological method for the whole century."Koch, Sigmund (1992) ''Psychology's Bridgman vs. Bridgman's Bridgman: An Essay in Reconstruction.'', in ''
Theory and Psychology ''Theory & Psychology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Psychology. The journal's founding editor is Henderikus J Stam. The journal's current editor is Kieran C O'Doherty. It has been in publication sin ...
'' vol. 2 no. 3 (1992) p. 275


See also

*
Edward C. Tolman Edward Chace Tolman (April 14, 1886 – November 19, 1959) was an American psychologist and a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Through Tolman's theories and works, he founded what is now a branch of psychology know ...
*
Heisenberg uncertainty principle In quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle (also known as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle) is any of a variety of mathematical inequalities asserting a fundamental limit to the accuracy with which the values for certain pairs of physic ...
*
Henry Schultz Henry Schultz (September 4, 1893 – November 26, 1938) was an American economist, statistician, and one of the founders of econometrics. Paul Samuelson named Schultz (along with Harry Gunnison Brown, Allyn Abbott Young, Henry Ludwell Moore, Fra ...
* Herbert A. Simon *
Talcott Parsons Talcott Parsons (December 13, 1902 – May 8, 1979) was an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism. Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in soci ...


Notes and references


External links


Online excerpt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Logic of Modern Physics 1927 non-fiction books Philosophy of science books Contemporary philosophical literature Social sciences books Positivism Epistemology of science