Pragmatic is an approach to philosophy that argues that a belief is true only insofar as it works or is useful; that the meaning of a proposition is its practical consequence and not its metaphysical truth. Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that emerged in the latter part of the nineteenth century and that has significantly influenced non-philosophers as well, especially in fields such as sociology, psychology, law, education, and anthropology. It is also sometimes called American pragmatism because so many of its proponents were Americans and because it has a strong influence on American culture.
The term “pragmatic” comes from the Latin root praeger, meaning to take hold or grip. The pragmatists took this literally, and they were concerned with practical results and the pragmatic implications of beliefs and actions. It is important to realize, however, that there is no pragmatist creed, no neat list of articles and essential tenets endorsed by all pragmatists or even by a large majority of them. This is because there are a variety of pragmatic approaches, all of which can be considered pragmatist, each having its own distinct focus and resulting in a distinctive set of theories and ideas.
There are formal and computational pragmatics; theoretical and applied; game-theoretical, clinical, experimental, and neuropragmatics; intercultural and cross-linguistic pragmatics, as well as historical pragmatics. There is a great deal of work going on in pragmatics, and most of it is not explicitly pragmatist. There are, nonetheless, some underlying themes and theses that loom large in the pragmatist tradition.
One is the idea that meaning, or semantic content, is the product of the process of verification. This is an idea that was emphasized by William James and John Dewey, although James scrupulously swore that the concept had been coined earlier by C. S. Peirce, who was eager to distance his views from those of James.
Another pragmatist theme concerns the nature of knowledge and how it is acquired. Some pragmatists have argued that it is a kind of’struggle with reality’ in which the intelligent organism deals with its environment, and that knowledge arises from and results from this struggle. This is an idea that has been controversial since it can be seen to imply a form of anti-skepticism, if not outright fallibilism.
The last major theme is the role of values in the pragmatist theory. Some pragmatists have maintained that the only true value is that which makes us happy and fulfilled, while others have taken a more moderate position that leaves open the possibility for happiness and fulfillment to arise from other sources as well. Still others have argued that values are not intrinsically a matter of happiness and unhappiness but rather of a sense of morality and an ethical sensibility. This idea is often seen as a bridge between the pragmatism of James and the pessimism of Dewey.