Pragmatic (from Greek , meaning ‘practical’) is an approach or attitude that emphasizes practical matters and solutions in human endeavors. The term has also been applied to philosophy, specifically the philosophical tradition founded on pragmatism. A pragmatist is someone who holds the view that knowing the world is inseparable from agency within it and that there is no ultimate validity of philosophical concepts except in terms of their utility in inquiry and action.
Pragmatism is a very broad philosophical tradition. It has attracted a diverse and often contradictory range of interpretations. It includes a strong emphasis on scientific experimentation and a view that all knowledge is derived by transacting with rather than representing nature, the view that a belief can only qualify as true if it helps humans to engage in inquiry and action, the view that all experience is the result of the struggle of intelligent organisms with their environment, the view that language rests on a deep bed of shared practices, and much more.
Initially, pragmatism was developed by Peirce and James, and then it was augmented by other philosophers, scientists, and psychologists. Many applied fields have adopted pragmatism as their method and principle, including fields such as public administration, political science, leadership studies, international relations, and research methodology.
William James, in his series of lectures titled “Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking” (1907), presented pragmatism as a solution to the seeming impossibility of reconciling two competing philosophical attitudes. He characterized the clash as that between “tough-minded men who go by what works and tender-minded men who prefer a priori principles which appeal to the rationality of ratiocination.” Pragmatism offered a bridge between these attitudes.
It is important to recognize that the basic ideas of pragmatism have been widely misunderstood. Many people mistakenly believe that pragmatism is a metaphysical position, that it denies the existence of transcendent realities. In fact, pragmatism is an empiricist position that leaves open the possibility for the existence of transcendent realities but that does not require them.
Contemporary philosophical pragmatic theory has a variety of different models, largely depending on the discipline and the methodological orientation of the scholar. Generally, there are three general tendencies: those who see pragmatics, much in the Gricean tradition, as a philosophical project; those who focus on its interaction with grammar; and those who consider it an empirical psychological theory of utterance interpretation. All of these approaches have value in the field, and they each have a role to play. However, some of these models are arguably more useful than others, and they need to be distinguished from one another. For example, the model of relevance theory tends to be especially well-suited to the philosophy of language and communication studies. In this respect, it is probably the most broadly applicable. Other models, such as that of Donnellan, are more suited to the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of religion. The following bibliography identifies books that are helpful for studying these various models and traditions.