Talk:Operational definition

Boyd reference to Bridgman's work appears to be incorrect (or at least is not directly helpful)

Under the "Phiolosophy" heading, this article references an article by Boyd (in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) which suggests Bridgman's work on operational definitions was from 1914. However, when I went to the Stanford Encyclopedia article, I could not find any reference to Bridgman or to 1914. But it did mention "operationalism" a lot!! ^_^

So I checked the Stanford Encyclopedia definition of "operationalism" and there I hit the jackpot!! It talks all about Bridgman's work and ties it to his 1927 book "The Logic of Modern Physics". It also gives the context for the 1914 date - according to that article, that is when Bridgman first taught special relativity and teaching it caused him to think much more deeply about how concepts should be defined.

The Wikipedia page on Bridgman *also* mentions his work on operational definitions and *also* references that 1927 book.

So I think that the reference to the Boyd article in the Stanford Encyclopedia should be changed to the definition of "operationalism" in the Stanford Encyclopdedia, or possibly to the Wikipedia article on Bridgman itself.

I wonder if the Boyd article was edited and specific mentions of Bridgman and the 1914 experience were taken out (or moved to the "operationalism" definition page instead). 64.22.249.253 (talk) 17:10, 21 July 2025 (UTC)

(b. hinrichs)