Definition of Instrumentalism

1. Noun. A system of pragmatic philosophy that considers idea to be instruments that should guide our actions and their value is measured by their success.

Generic synonyms: Pragmatism

Definition of Instrumentalism

1. n. The view that the sanction of truth is its utility, or that truth is genuine only in so far as it is a valuable instrument.

Definition of Instrumentalism

1. Noun. (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. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Instrumentalism

1. [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Instrumentalism

instrumental amusia
instrumental case
instrumental cases
instrumental conditioning
instrumental music
instrumental rationality
instrumental role
instrumental version
instrumental width
instrumentalisation
instrumentalisations
instrumentalise
instrumentalised
instrumentalises
instrumentalising
instrumentalism (current term)
instrumentalist
instrumentalists
instrumentality
instrumentalization
instrumentalizations
instrumentalize
instrumentalized
instrumentalizes
instrumentalizing
instrumentally
instrumentalness
instrumentals
instrumentarium
instrumentary

Literary usage of Instrumentalism

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Present Conflict of Ideals: A Study of the Philosophical Background of by Ralph Barton Perry (1918)
"instrumentalism Much the most sophisticated form of anti-intellectualism, and at the same time the form most characteristic of our age, is that form which ..."

2. William James and Other Essays on the Philosophy of Life by Josiah Royce (1911)
"If instrumentalism is true, it is true as a report of facts about the general ... But no individual man ever experiences that fact. i instrumentalism, ..."

3. Thought and Things: A Study of the Development and Meaning of Thought, Or by James Mark Baldwin (1911)
"There is in fact not a mere likeness between instrumentalism and ... In the future, the current instrumentalism of knowledge will constitute the second ..."

4. Dogmatism and Evolution: Studies in Modern Philosophy by Theodore De Laguna, Grace Mead Andrus De Laguna (1910)
"By instrumentalism is meant that element of pragmatism which has grown out of ... In the second place, and more particularly, instrumentalism means that all ..."

5. John Dewey's Logical Theory by Delton Thomas Howard (1919)
"But it differs widely from the instrumentalism of the Neo-Hegelian school both ... Dewey reaches his instrumentalism through a psychological analysis of the ..."

6. Studies in Contemporary Metaphysics by Reinhold Friedrich Alfred Hoernlé (1920)
"Inspired, at bottom, by the social reformer's zeal, instrumentalism seeks to supply ... instrumentalism " is the name for the theory that thinking (or ..."

7. The American Year Book by Simon Newton Dexter North, Francis Graham Wickware, Albert Bushnell Hart (1911)
"instrumentalism holds that truth is not something existing absolutely and quite apart from human life, being what it is whether known to us or not, ..."

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