Pragmatic is a way of thinking and behaving that focuses on practical results and achieving real-world goals. Pragmatism is a style of philosophizing that has many adherents in diverse fields including business, law, psychology, management, public administration, political science, leadership studies, international relations and research methodology.
The word pragmatic is derived from the Latin word “pragmata,” which means “of practical use.” People who take a pragmatic approach are interested in what makes sense for them, rather than what makes logical sense or is some lofty ideal. Taking a practical approach is often the best way to achieve the desired outcome.
A lot of what happens in our everyday interactions is pragmatic. For example, we might tell a friend that we’re running late for our date, and we’re just going to meet at the restaurant instead. We’re being pragmatic because we know that meeting at the restaurant is more convenient for both of us.
There are all kinds of pragmatic phenomena that scholars have studied: formal and computational; theoretical and applied; conversational, cognitive, experimental and neuropragmatics; intercultural, interpersonal and interlinguistic pragmatics; historical pragmatics, and so on. The common thread is that the study of pragmatics tries to figure out how and why our language works the way it does.
In some ways, pragmatics is like a sub-field of semantics. However, the main distinction is that pragmatics focuses on how our language works, and semantics focuses on what our language means. Semantics, as a discipline, has been around since the 1870s and is now a highly respected field of study.
During the early 1870s, a group of Harvard-educated men met for informal philosophical discussions in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This group included proto-pragmatist Chauncey Wright (1830-1875), Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935) and aspiring philosophers Charles Sanders Peirce and William James. It was here that the pragmatic theory of truth developed.
The core of pragmatics is that a true hypothesis or statement must be useful in order for it to be a valid one. According to Peirce, the term “true” is defined as an opinion that we will accept at the end of a reasonable inquiry into its matter. James’s view of truth is somewhat different, arguing that it is “that which works.”
A pragmatic approach is often better for accomplishing our goals than an idealistic approach. The reason is that a pragmatic view of the world is more likely to work in real life, where it can be applied in many situations. For example, when the government needs to make a decision about whether or not to go to war with another country, it will take a pragmatic approach to avoid a costly and unfavorable result, such as a long and bloody conflict. Similarly, when businesses are struggling financially, they will be more willing to adopt a pragmatic approach rather than try to keep up with the latest technological developments. This is because they know that the cost of doing so will ultimately be more expensive than it would have been to remain on the cutting edge.