Pragmatic is a philosophy of language and understanding human communication. It is a third way of looking at the world, a philosophy that sits between analytic and continental traditions of philosophical thought. Pragmatism is a social, cultural and situational theory of meaning that helps us understand how people use language to convey their thoughts, ideas, and beliefs.
Often we don’t say what we mean and language is inherently ambiguous. That’s why pragmatic knowledge is so important! People use pragmatics to disambiguate meaning so that they can communicate effectively. Pragmatics is a branch of philosophy that is based on the work of philosopher Paul Grice who wrote what are now called the “Gricean Maxims.” The maxims are four general pragmatic rules that seem to apply in most conversations, whether spoken or written: Be clear and concise. Be understood by the listener. Be relevant to the conversation. Be honest and truthful.
A person who is pragmatic is someone who is concerned with matters of fact rather than with ideals. They are interested in how things work in reality and are willing to compromise their beliefs for what can actually get accomplished. Pragmatics is the opposite of idealism which involves wanting to make the world a better place, but is often beaten down by the frustration of real life when those hopes don’t come true.
Pragmatism was first developed in the United States around 1870 and today presents a growing alternative to analytic and continental (Continental) philosophical traditions worldwide. Its pioneers are the so-called classic pragmatists Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) and his Harvard colleague William James (1842-1910). Classic pragmatism’s progressive social ideals live on in some areas of contemporary philosophy such as feminism, ecology and Native American philosophy where it offers a powerful counterpoint to the dominant paradigms of those fields.
More recently, pragmatism has been embraced by some philosophers who are working to place its ideas in a larger historical and philosophical context, exploring connections between classical pragmatism and Kant, 19th century idealism, and various analytic traditions. These scholars are sometimes referred to as New Pragmatists. They include those working on a variety of liberatory philosophical projects such as those in feminism, ecology, Native American philosophy and Latin American philosophy who look to the pragmatist tradition for inspiration. New pragmatists are also finding ways to integrate the philosophy of language, a central focus of classic pragmatism, with other areas of contemporary philosophy such as metaphysics and epistemology. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a good overview of these topics and many links to other related material. There are numerous books on pragmatism in print and several blogs. Some are accessible to the general reader and others are more scholarly in nature. For further reading, see the bibliography at the end of this article. There is also a wiki on Pragmatism. It is well worth a visit! It contains a wealth of references to other sources, including books, articles and papers. The site is also searchable by topic.