Pragmatic is a way of thinking that looks at the context of things and not just the basic meaning. It’s also a mindset that can be taught.
This type of thinking takes into account all the factors that go into understanding how to use language. It looks at the impact that the words and sentences have on the listener, as well as the tone of voice and what is said in response to a question. It is a very important part of conversation because it allows people to think more about the whole situation, rather than just the literal meaning of what was said.
The philosophy of pragmatism started in the United States around 1870 and presents a growing third alternative to both analytic and Continental philosophical traditions worldwide. Its early (classical) incarnation was developed by Charles Sanders Peirce and his Harvard colleague William James. These pragmatists focused on theorising inquiry, meaning and the nature of truth, although James also applied these themes to exploring truth in religion. Later, George Herbert Mead and the pioneering African-American social worker Jane Addams both developed pragmatist perspectives on the relations between people.
In the twentieth century pragmatism was challenged by the rise of analytic philosophy and the growth of the scientific revolution of evolutionary biology. It was also displaced by the growing popularity of Continental philosophical theories such as existentialism and hermeneutics, particularly in Europe and the US. In the late 1970s, Richard Rorty turned consciously to pragmatic ideas as an antidote to mainstream epistemology’s naive idea that it can merely mirror the world, thus leading to a new movement called neopragmatism.
Neopragmatism has been growing since then, reviving the philosophic relevance of Peirce and James and finding a wider application in social science research. It has been a significant contributor to a discipline called semiotics, which is concerned with the meanings of signs and symbols. It has also impacted the field of experimental pragmatics, which studies human communication and the way people interpret different situations with language. This is a highly interdisciplinary field, which incorporates many other disciplines such as psychology, cognitive science and sociolinguistics.
However, in recent years, experimental pragmatics has struggled because of wildly divergent experimental results, with scholars debating what the true source of these discrepancies is. This has coincided with a growing concern in psychological and other empirical fields over the quality of replications and the validity of generalized theoretical claims.
A key feature of pragmatism is its openness to change, and it is this that is reflected in the name of the movement itself. Changing times and new challenges will continue to challenge the philosophy, and there is always a possibility that it may eventually be superseded by a more robust theory. Nevertheless, for now pragmatism is a valuable addition to the philosophical canon.