Pragmatic focuses on the real world and practical considerations rather than idealistic considerations. It involves weighing options and courses of action based on what will actually work or have a positive impact. This philosophical approach to life, which traces its roots back to Dewey and James, has had a profound effect on many areas of modern society. For example, leadership studies, public administration, political science and even physics have been heavily influenced by pragmatic principles.
Philosophers who employ pragmatism have a wide range of views and interests. There is computational pragmatics (a subdiscipline of artificial intelligence), theoretical and applied pragmatics; game-theoretic, clinical, experimental and neuropragmatics; and intercultural and international pragmatics. Many pragmatic philosophers have been influenced by John Dewey, William James and C.S. Peirce and have developed an analytical version of pragmatism.
While there are many ways to define pragmatism, the concept is usually contrasted with idealism. In general, a pragmatic person is more concerned with real-world results and practical consequences than idealistic concepts like justice or fairness. People are often told they need to be more pragmatic, meaning that they should consider the realistic options and courses of action that will get the job done rather than just focusing on the best-case scenario.
For William James, something is true only insofar as it works. In other words, if a belief is helpful, useful or effective, it is true and the more useful a theory is, the more likely it is to be true. While this pragmatic theory of truth veers into subjectivism, James left open the possibility that there may be transcendent realities beyond the physical.
Pragmatism is also a philosophy of inquiry that is quite congenial to traditional academic skepticism. The pragmatist insistence that all knowledge is tentative and subject to revision makes it an excellent complement to the skeptical tradition of Descartes and Rene Descartes.
In addition, pragmatism has been an important influence on epistemological relativism. Various forms of empiricism, fallibilism, verificationism and Quinean naturalist metaphilosophy are often associated with pragmatics. Some pragmatists, such as Joseph Margolis, have argued for epistemological relativity while others, such as Hilary Putnam and Susan Haack, oppose it. A few pragmatists, such as Paul Ricoeur and Richard Swinburne, have embraced a version of epistemological realism.