Book Review: A Pragmatic Perspective of Measurement by David Torres Irribarra

Abstract

This review situates the book A Pragmatic Perspective of Measurement by David Torres Irribarra within contributions to the theory of practice of measurement in the human sciences over the past 20years. Under the pragmatic perspective being introduced, measurement is characterized as an activity of classification, ordination, or quantification of a set of elements according to a model of a relevant attribute in service of a larger goal. The rationales provided by Torres Irribarra for this perspective, along with its possible affordances, are given a critical review. The pragmatic perspective depends upon counterfactual reasoning and the ability to establish criteria for the success of a measurement activity that is external from the instrumental procedure in question. A limitation of this approach can come from a lack of contact with substantive theory about the attribute to be measured that is internal to the procedure in question. Torres Irribara's book presents a possible rapprochement between those who have argued for more restrictive or less restrictive conceptualizations of what it means to measure a psychological attribute.