instrumentalism

English

Etymology

instrumental +‎ -ism

Noun

instrumentalism (countable and uncountable, plural instrumentalisms)

  1. (philosophy) In the philosophy of science, the view that concepts and theories are merely useful instruments whose worth is measured not by whether the concepts and theories are true or false (or correctly depict reality), but how effective they are in explaining and predicting phenomena.
    • Josiah Royce
      Instrumentalism views truth as simply the value belonging to certain ideas in so far as these ideas are biological functions of our organisms, and psychological functions whereby we direct our choices and attain our successes.
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