instrumentalism

 [in-struh-men-tl-iz-uhm]  

in·stru·men·tal·ism

   [in-struh-men-tl-iz-uhm]
noun Philosophy.
the variety of pragmatism developed by John Dewey, maintaining that the truth of an idea is determined by its success in the active solution of a problem and that the value of ideas is determined by their function in human experience.
Origin:
1905–10; instrumental + -ism
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Instrumentalism has a plethora of syllables.
So is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Does it mean:
an obscure term ostensibly referring to a lung disease caused by silica dust, sometimes cited as one of the longest words in the English language.
(used as a nonsense word by children to express approval or to represent the longest word in English.)
LEARN MORE LONG WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...
Collins
World English Dictionary
instrumentalism (ˌɪnstrəˈmɛntəˌlɪzəm)
 
—n
1.  a system of pragmatic philosophy holding that ideas are instruments, that they should guide our actions and can change the world, and that their value consists not in their truth but in their success
2.  an antirealist philosophy of science that holds that theories are not true or false but are merely tools for deriving predictions from observational data

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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