Pragmatic is an approach to philosophy that emphasizes the nature of human experience. It emerged in the United States around 1870 and presents a growing third alternative to both analytic and continental philosophical traditions worldwide. It was primarily advanced by the philosophers Charles Sanders Peirce and his close friend William James, although it also influenced many of their Harvard colleagues such as Josiah Royce and John Dewey (Morgan, 2014a).
Pragmatists are more interested in practical considerations than ideals or theory. They seek to know how things work and how they can be made to work better. This pragmatic approach to knowledge allows them to build solutions that meet real needs.
The word pragmatic derives from the Latin “praegere” meaning to go forward or to proceed. It means to go ahead or be forward moving, or in some cases, to act in the face of uncertainty or ambiguity. Pragmatic approaches can be applied to a wide variety of fields, including management, health care, law enforcement, education, and research and evaluation.
In business, a pragmatic approach is used to develop products and services that address customer needs. It uses customer interviews, product demonstrations, and win/loss analysis to identify critical problems and opportunities for improvement. Then, a prototype is developed and tested with customers to determine its effectiveness and value. This feedback is used to refine the product before it’s released to the market.
Unlike other types of research, pragmatic trials are patient-centered and aim to assess the impact of an intervention on the real world. They are conducted in routine clinical settings and compared against a control group. The pragmatic trial seeks to optimize the design of an evaluation, which translates into increased efficiency and a greater likelihood of obtaining meaningful data.
Children with pragmatic language challenges are less able to negotiate the social intricacies of the learning environment, which can negatively impact their academic performance and self-esteem. Untreated pragmatic language difficulties can lead to a lack of interest in school, limited educational opportunities, and a diminished sense of autonomy.
The pragmatists are distinguished from other philosophers by their emphasis on the role of experience and the importance of action in human understanding. They are also known for their use of logical inference and their acceptance that truth is relative to the context of an experience. Several liberatory political movements such as feminism, ecology, and Native American philosophy have drawn inspiration from pragmatism (Richardson, 2000). In addition to being an important part of the scientific method, pragmatism has been used to inform the design of health-related interventions and the methods for evaluating them. It has also been used to evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs. For example, one pragmatic study analyzed the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy for smoking cessation among adolescents in a middle school. It found that a program based on pragmatism increased the likelihood of achieving a significant reduction in teen smoking rates.