Psychiatric classification and empiricist theories of meaning

The philosophical background of the contemporary debate over psychiatric classification is reviewed in some detail. It is shown that the philosophy behind DSM-III and DSM-III-R is based on a theory about the semantic status of operational definitions, which was abandoned several decades ago by empiricist philosophers of science. It is argued that the newer empiricist and realist theories of meaning developed after 1960, particularly the idea of an indirect specification of meaning through contingent operational criteria, offer a better foundation for psychiatric classification.