Pragmatic is a philosophical perspective with wide-ranging implications for all areas of philosophy and beyond. It grew out of the philosophies of Dewey, James and others in the early 20th century. As the Deweyan era ended and analytic philosophy became dominant, pragmatism developed into a full-fledged epistemology with many rich applications in the social sciences. It has been influential in the development of liberatory philosophical projects like feminism, ecology and Native American philosophy. It is also the source of a broad range of pragmatic methodologies, including formal and computational pragmatics; theoretical and applied; game-theoretic, clinical and experimental pragmatics as well as neuropragmatics.
Classical pragmatism includes a view of truth that is inherently pragmatic; that is, it is true insofar as it works. For example, William James argued that the claim “your prayers are heard” is not necessarily true on a metaphysical level but may be true in terms of the psychological effect it has upon those who believe. While this is a pragmatist position, it does not rule out the possibility of transcendent truths or other ontological claims of religions.
Contemporary pragmatism includes a variety of different approaches to communication and meaning, all of which are influenced by Dewey, James, and Peirce. It is most often seen in the form of pragmatics, a theory of utterance interpretation that is concerned with facts about the real-world use of language and not just its abstract, logical meaning. It is sometimes called American pragmatism because the most prominent proponents were American philosophers.
It is a philosophical perspective with strong connections to the social sciences, particularly psychology and sociology. Behaviorism and functionalism in psychology and sociology have pragmatist roots. It is also an important influence in anthropology and archaeology, where it is used to explain the evolution of cultural beliefs and practices.
There is a close relationship between pragmatism and philosophy of language. For instance, classical pragmatists such as Grice and James were interested in the theory of communicative intentions and how those can be interpreted. Contemporary pragmatics, such as that of Chomsky, reflects this interest in how language is actually used and what it is capable of expressing.
The pragmatist methodology is also employed in many practical and applied fields, such as public administration, political science, leadership studies and international relations. This is especially true of neopragmatists who are interested in the connection between thought and action. This approach can be criticized for neglecting the nature of experience, however, and this is one of the primary criticisms of the neopragmatist project by traditional pragmatists (e.g., Carston 2005).