Objection
The problem is that coordinative definitions seem to beg the question. Since they are defined in conventional, non-empirical terms, it is difficult to see how they can resolve empirical questions. It would seem that the result of using coordinative definitions is simply to shift the problem of the geometric description of the world, for example, into a need to explain the mysterious "isomorphic coincidences" between the conventions given by the definitions and the structure of the physical world. Even in the simple case of defining "the geodesic between two points" as the empirical phrase "a ray of light in a vacuum", the correspondence between mathematical and empirical is left unexplained.
Read more about this topic: Coordinative Definition
Famous quotes containing the word objection:
“My objection to Liberalism is this—that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind—namely, politics—of philosophical ideas instead of political principles.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“The original of the picture you inclose, and which I return, was taken from life, and is, I think, a very true one; though my wife, and many others, do not. My impression is that their objection arises from the disordered condition of the hair.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“The only thing that is unqualifiedly given is the total pervasive quality; and the objection to calling it “given” is that the word suggests something to which it is given, mind or thought or consciousness or whatever, as well possibly as something that gives.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)