Pragmatic (pronounced prah-GAHM-tik) is the philosophical tradition which views language and thought as tools for prediction, problem solving, action and communication rather than mirroring or reflecting reality. Pragmatists therefore contend that most philosophical topics—including the nature of knowledge, concepts, meaning, beliefs and science—are best viewed from this pragmatic perspective.
The early formation of pragmatism is typically attributed to the works of two philosophers. The first is Charles S. Peirce, whose philosophy of ‘pragmatism’ developed from his analysis of human perception and experience. Peirce emphasized that human beliefs are not necessarily derived from direct observation, but are instead derived from the ‘feelings’ and ‘inferences’ that one has upon encountering something new.
In his writings on this topic, Peirce also sought to clarify the concept of truth. Unlike James, who saw ‘truth’ as an ultimate metaphysical property of some propositions and not others, Peirce argued that all statements possess a certain ‘truth value’ which is the pragmatic consequence of what they mean to language-users and what effect their use will have on their interactions with each other.
Another significant figure in the development of pragmatism was George Herbert Mead, who worked to develop pragmatist ideas regarding the social relations of individuals and the community as a whole. Mead was particularly concerned with the development of democratic ideals. In addition, Mead also sought to develop a theory of religion which was more pragmatic than traditional skepticism.
In more recent times, scholars have attempted to further clarify the pragmatist point of view. Various methods of reasoning have been used to try and explain the pragmatist point of view. Some scholars have focused on the development of ‘logical pragmatics’ as a way to further understand the pragmatist view. Others have sought to place pragmatism in a broader Western philosophical context, for example by tracing Peirce’s debt to Kant or by exploring connections between pragmatism and 19th century idealism.
Today, pragmatism is still a strong influence in many areas of philosophy and the wider world. Its tenets are found in applied fields such as public administration, leadership studies and conflict resolution. The philosophy of pragmatism is also found in some educational institutions, including university departments of Philosophy.
In the area of computer science, a branch of philosophy known as computational pragmatics has evolved to address the question of how a computer can interpret human utterances in real-world settings. The field of computational pragmatics is closely related to the study of natural language and information processing and involves using linguistic rules and knowledge of semantics, syntax and morphology to help computers more accurately emulate the human ability to process and communicate knowledge. One key aspect of this research is reference resolution, the process by which a computer determines whether two items are the same or different. The effectiveness of this process is reliant on contextual knowledge, which is why computational pragmatics relies on the ‘pragmatics’ of a specific setting. This contextual knowledge is often called ‘perception data’ by computer scientists.