Pragmatic is a philosophy that places great value on logical and practical considerations. A pragmatist is one who takes into account the effects of an action or idea rather than its origins or intentions. Pragmatism is often used as an antidote to idealism, which is the belief that ideals or theories are the only way to achieve a certain goal.
The philosopher William James embraced a pragmatic view of reality, in which something is true only if it works. He argued that beliefs acquire truth value through the struggle they have with their environment, and that ideas gain value by being useful in this endeavor. This view of pragmatism has since become popular in various forms among many cultures and philosophical schools.
Some important pragmatists include John Dewey, Charles Sanders Peirce, and George Herbert Mead. Dewey developed pragmatist perspectives on social sciences and education, while Peirce’s ideas about the natural law were central to pragmatism’s evolution into a theory of science. Mead was a pragmatist who focused on how people act and the social structures that shape their behavior.
While a person might be pragmatic on some issues, it is possible to become too pragmatic. This may occur when someone is so focused on practical concerns that he or she disregards the fact that not everyone sees things the same way. A person who is too pragmatic can end up beaten down by disappointments, resulting in a loss of idealistic hope.
The study of pragmatics focuses on how language is used in context, as opposed to the study of semantics, syntax, and semiotics, which focus on word meanings and grammatical rules. The discipline of pragmatics encompasses several different theories, including the theory that one and the same linguistic expression can express differing meanings or propositions in different contexts owing to ambiguity or indexicality, speech act theory, and relevance theory.
These theories are closely related to each other, and some of them overlap. For example, speech act theory and relevance theory both use the notion of “pragmatic intrusion” to explain how a speaker’s intention and the context of an utterance determine the meaning of an utterance.
In addition to the concepts mentioned above, pragmatics also incorporates principles from cognitive psychology and philosophical logic. The concept of a pragmatic intrusion is central to the study of pragmatics and has been applied in the analysis of natural languages, computer simulations, and cognitive psychology.
In the academic world, pragmatism is gaining in popularity, especially in countries outside of North America. There is a lively research network in South America, Scandinavia, and most recently central Europe and China. Pragmatism is not without its critics, however, and the movement has been challenged by the emergence of analytic philosophy in most Anglo-American departments. Many scholars who embrace pragmatism believe that analytic philosophy is a threat to the values of classical pragmatism. Others, however, argue that analytic philosophy can complement pragmatism by providing the tools to explore pragmatist issues that traditional philosophical disciplines cannot.