Pragmatic refers to an approach or mentality that is practical, realism-focused and results-oriented. Pragmatic individuals prioritize real-world considerations and focus on what works in a given scenario, and are often flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances. They tend to be skeptical of strategies that are untested or improbable, and have no problem calling out flaws in plans when necessary. As a result, they are often the most valuable members of a team, as they keep the group grounded and on track to reach their goals.
The Pragmatic philosophy began in the 1870s with a small club of Harvard-educated men, including the proto-positivist Chauncey Wright, future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Charles Sanders Peirce, a logician and mathematician. The pragmatic ideas of these three, along with that of William James, a psychologist and moralist, formed the core of what is now known as the pragmatic school of philosophy.
A main tenet of pragmatic philosophy is that “truth” exists only insofar as it helps humans to survive and thrive. For example, if someone can demonstrate that capitalism makes the world a better place for most people than socialism, then that person can say that capitalist society is more truthful than socialist society. Pragmatism is not amoral, however, as a moral or ethical person can still be pragmatic. For example, killing a creditor in order to avoid paying a debt may seem pragmatic from one perspective, but from a larger perspective, this can lead to societal collapse, crime, and a lack of productive members in the economy.
Another key element of pragmatism is that truth should not be restricted to certain topics or areas of inquiry. For example, pragmatists will consider all sorts of ideas, whether they are scientific, philosophical, or moral. The pragmatists believed that all subjects, if they were approached with the proper mindset, could be examined in a logical and reasonable way.
During the 20th century, philosopher Richard Rorty and others developed a more complex analytic version of the pragmatic idea that reality is what we make it. This neo-pragmatism has gained popularity and influence, particularly in the United States, where it is often referred to as American Pragmatism.
Although pragmatic philosophy started as a criterion of meaning, it has since become a full-fledged theory of knowledge and epistemology. It has been adopted in different ways by different scholars and philosophers, and it is a common theme in philosophy of language, the psychology of communication, family therapy, linguistics and more.
A famous example of pragmatic thinking is Nelson Goodman’s theory of meaning, which explains how our understanding of language is based on the interaction between speakers and their responses to each other. He also developed a method for evaluating the meaning of statements by considering their effects on the participants’ attitudes, actions and beliefs. The theory has been criticized by some of its original pragmatists, such as Quine, but Goodman continues to defend and expand the pragmatic idea.