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Philosophical and Foundational Issues in Measurement Theory

• Edited by C. Wade Savage, Philip Ehrlich

• Price: $59.95
• Binding: Hardback
• Pages: 248
• Published by: Psychology Press
• Publication Date: 1st October 1991
• ISBN: 978-0-8058-0726-4

About the Book

Measurement theory has only recently become recognized as a legitimate, specialized field of inquiry. This text covers a wide range of issues of central concern to contemporary measurement theorists, and a broad range of philosophical perspectives are represented. The formalist, representationalist approach defines measurement as the assignment of numbers to entities and events to represent their properties and relations. It also states that measurement theory is supposed to analyze the concept of a scale of measurement, describe various types of scales and their uses, and formulate the conditions required for the existence of scales of various types. Since this approach dominates contemporary measurement theory, the volume begins with essays by some of its leading architects. In order to allow for diverse points of view, the book also includes articles that attempt to broaden this approach, and several that even criticize the approach.

Table of Contents

Contents: C.W. Savage, P. Ehrlich, A Brief Introduction to Measurement and to Essays. R.D. Luce, L. Narens, Intrinsic Archimedeanness and the Continuum. P. Suppes, M. Zanotti, Qualitative Axioms for Random-Variable Representation of Extensive Quantities. E.W. Adams, On the Empirical Status of Measurement Axioms: The Case of Subjective Probability. H.E. Kyburg Jr., Measuring Errors of Measurement. W. Balzer, The Structuralist View of Measurement: An Extension of Received Measurement Theories. J.P. Burgess, Synthetic Physics and Nominalist Realism. A. Koslow, Quantitative But Nonnumerical Relations in Sciene: Eudoxus, Newton, and Maxwell. B. Ellis, Conventionalism in Measurement Theory. K. Berka, Are There Objective Grounds for Measurement Procedures? Z. Domotor, Measurement from Empiricist and Realist Points of View.