EINSTEIN AND THE CONSTRAINT OF OPERATIONAL MEANING A FOUNDATIONAL CLARIFICATION OF PHYSICAL ADMISSIBILITY

This paper analyzes Albert Einstein’s work as a disciplined application of a single methodological constraint: no physical structure is admissible unless it has direct operational meaning. It shows that relativity did not introduce new metaphysical ideas about space and time, but instead systematically eliminated non-operational concepts—such as absolute simultaneity, global frames, and unmeasurable structures—until only quantities defined by clocks, rods, and signal exchange remained. Spacetime geometry is therefore presented not as an abstract arena, but as the residue left after pruning all non-instantiable mathematical structure. The paper frames Einstein’s achievement as a constraint on theory construction, not a philosophical stance, and situates it as a necessary link between Newton’s mechanical restraint and Majorana’s elimination of mathematical surplus.