17
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
L. Mari et al., Measurement across the Sciences, Springer Series in
Measurement Science and Technology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65558-7_2
Chapter 2
Fundamental concepts in measurement
2.1 Introduction
Measurement is present in nearly every aspect of modern society, from handicraft to
large-scale scientific research and from trade and commerce to complex technology.
Perhaps because of this omnipresence, it sometimes seems that measurement is just
taken for granted. However, the basic concepts and vocabulary associated with measurement are not universally shared or agreed upon; in different contexts, different
terms are sometimes used for the same concept, or the same term is used for different concepts. Just as an example, in its common usage the term “measure” can
denote the entity to be measured (as in “length is a geometric measure”), the process
of measuring (as in “this measure has been hard to perform”), and the result of the
process (as in “this measure is sufficient for making a decision”). Moreover, there
are many stereotypes and presuppositions related to measurement, particularly
regarding its relations with quantification (Mari, Maul, Torres Irribarra, & Wilson,
2017). To help dispose of these stereotypes and presuppositions, we plan in this
volume to lay out a basic set of foundations for measurement that we believe will be
useful across a wide range of sciences and applications. The fact that measurement
is so deeply embedded in the infrastructure of society seems sufficient to suggest
that a mutual understanding of its basic foundations would be very useful, even if it
is quite challenging to achieve.
Any framework that encompasses measurement across the sciences requires a
unified and consistent terminology—i.e., a coordinated set of concepts and the
terms to designate them. This is a challenging endeavor given the conceptual and
lexical multiplicity around measurement, in which one frequently encounters both
homonyms (one term, several meanings: a serious problem, due to possible misunderstandings) and synonyms (one concept, several terms: a less serious problem,
just a matter of confusing redundancy).
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
L. Mari et al., Measurement across the Sciences, Springer Series in
Measurement Science and Technology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65558-7_2
Chapter 2
Fundamental concepts in measurement
2.1 Introduction
Measurement is present in nearly every aspect of modern society, from handicraft to
large-scale scientific research and from trade and commerce to complex technology.
Perhaps because of this omnipresence, it sometimes seems that measurement is just
taken for granted. However, the basic concepts and vocabulary associated with measurement are not universally shared or agreed upon; in different contexts, different
terms are sometimes used for the same concept, or the same term is used for different concepts. Just as an example, in its common usage the term “measure” can
denote the entity to be measured (as in “length is a geometric measure”), the process
of measuring (as in “this measure has been hard to perform”), and the result of the
process (as in “this measure is sufficient for making a decision”). Moreover, there
are many stereotypes and presuppositions related to measurement, particularly
regarding its relations with quantification (Mari, Maul, Torres Irribarra, & Wilson,
2017). To help dispose of these stereotypes and presuppositions, we plan in this
volume to lay out a basic set of foundations for measurement that we believe will be
useful across a wide range of sciences and applications. The fact that measurement
is so deeply embedded in the infrastructure of society seems sufficient to suggest
that a mutual understanding of its basic foundations would be very useful, even if it
is quite challenging to achieve.
Any framework that encompasses measurement across the sciences requires a
unified and consistent terminology—i.e., a coordinated set of concepts and the
terms to designate them. This is a challenging endeavor given the conceptual and
lexical multiplicity around measurement, in which one frequently encounters both
homonyms (one term, several meanings: a serious problem, due to possible misunderstandings) and synonyms (one concept, several terms: a less serious problem,
just a matter of confusing redundancy).