Machianadj.n.
/ˈmɑːkɪən/, /ˈmakɪən/, /ˈmɑːxɪən/, U.S. /ˈmɑkiən/, /ˈmɑxiən/ A. adj.
Of, relating to, or characteristic of Ernst Mach (see Mach n.), his scientific work, or his philosophical ideas, in which the principles of mechanics were based on an extreme empiricism.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > empiricism > [adjective] > of or relating to positivism > of branches of
Machian1927
operationalist1934
operationist1950
1927 D. Kvitko tr. V. Lenin Materialism ii. 85 Your statement..is utterly fallacious, and follows only from your Machian position.
1938 A. Fineberg tr. V. Lenin Materialism & Empirio-criticism iii. 169 James Ward... does not controvert Mach, but..utilises the entire Machian trend in physics in his fight against materialism.
1941 Mind 50 82 The Machian positivists of Peirce's day denied that there are ‘really’ any natural laws.
1958 Victorian Stud. 1 253 Russell's own theory of knowledge underwent an increasingly Machian development from Our Knowledge of the External World..to the Analysis of Mind, in which a full-blooded neutral monism of Mach's variety is expounded.
1963 K. R. Popper Conjectures & Refut. vi. 173 In our own day essentialism has been dethroned; a Berkeleian or Machian positivism or instrumentalism has..become fashionable.
1974 Nature 11 Jan. 99/2 Relation (8) may be looked upon either as an equipartition between the gravitational energy and the energy of expansion according to Einstein's equations or as a Machian relation determining the gravitational constant in terms of the matter content of the Universe.
1977 J. Narlikar Struct. Universe v. 171 In 1964 Sir Fred Hoyle and I put forward another Machian theory of gravitation.
1988 Nature 24 Mar. 301/1 Hipkin's approach is refreshingly that of a logical positivist of the machian school.
B. n.
A follower or adherent of Mach or his ideas.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > empiricism > [noun] > positivism > Machism and its adherents
Machian1927
Machism1927
1927 D. Kvitko tr. V. Lenin Materialism i. 69 We shall confine ourselves to those opinions which reveal the ‘subjective’ ignorance of our Machians.
1938 A. Fineberg tr. V. Lenin Materialism & Empirio-criticism i. 82 Karl Pearson, the English Machian, who avoids all philosophical artifices.
1989 Brit. Jrnl. Philos. Sci. 40 522 By June 1913 Petzoldt apparently hoped that relativizing the constancy of light..would allow Machians to accept relativity theory.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2000; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1927