Operationalism restricts concepts to measurable operations, erasing transcendent meaning.

Evidence

The trend may be related to a development in scientific method: operationalism in the physical, behaviorism in the social sciences. The common feature is a total empiricism in the treatment of concepts; their meaning is restricted to the representation of particular operations and behavior. The operational point of view is well illustrated by P. W. Bridgman’s analysis of the concept of length: … We evidently know what we mean by length if we can tell what the length of any and every object is, and for the physicist nothing more is required. To find the length of an object, we have to perform certain physical operations. The concept of length is therefore fixed when the operations by which length is measured are fixed: that is, the concept of length involves as much and nothing more than the set of operations by which length is determined. In general, we mean by any concept nothing more than a set of operations; the concept is synonymous with the corresponding set of operations. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 132

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precisely defines operationalism via Bridgman’s length example — the methodological mechanism behind one-dimensional thought.
• XREF: connects to: Operational concepts miss the determining facts and thereby sustain ideology — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 460; The operational concept becomes false by atomizing facts within the repressive whole — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 430; Limitation implies transcendence because the limiting being relates to what it excludes — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 869 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• The operational concept becomes false by atomizing facts within the repressive whole #expands (0.92) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 430
• Operational concepts miss the determining facts and thereby sustain ideology #expands (0.90) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 460
• Operational concepts perform a political function by inducing adjustment to society #expands (0.90) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 427
• Transcendence means overshooting established discourse toward real historical possibilities. #expands (0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 103
• Limitation implies transcendence because the limiting being relates to what it excludes #contradicts (0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 869
• Positivist philosophy imposes an empirical a priori that cannot be transcended #corroborates (0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 671
• The right weaponizes analytic terms by appropriating them and emptying their meaning. #exemplifies (0.72) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 472