Pragmatic is a word that is used to describe someone or something as practical, logical, or sensible. People are often told that they should be more pragmatic, or that they should focus on realistic options or courses of action, rather than pursuing an idealistic course of action that may not have the best results in real life. A person who is pragmatic is willing to compromise, and knows that not all things will work out perfectly.
The word pragmatic comes from the Latin pragma, meaning “to do” or “to act.” It’s also related to the Greek praxis, which means the art of doing or performing. The word pragmatic has been in use since the 1580s, and it’s a very common word today. You can find it in many dictionaries and even in the Bible.
Classic pragmatists such as Peirce and James developed pragmatic ideas in the 1870s through discussions in a so-called Metaphysical Club at Harvard, and later in their writings. These writers developed a philosophy of science, epistemology and ethics rooted in pragmatism that has had significant influence on philosophical thinking for over 100 years.
The main goal of pragmatics is to explain the social, cultural and situational factors that help to make a particular utterance meaningful. It is different from semantics in that it focuses on the ‘contextual’ aspects of semiosis, meaning that it deals with the relationship between the utterance, speakers, their intentions and actions, and the way in which they manage to communicate (Morris 1938).
A neopragmatist approach to truth tries to combine features of classical pragmatism and other non-correspondence theories of truth. The aim is to provide a more complete and satisfactory account of what it is for an assertion to be true, in terms that can be interpreted by the ordinary people who are its intended audience. In this respect it differs from Peirce’s original pragmatist theory of truth which only dealt with linguistic content and the ‘correspondence’ between the propositions expressed by an utterance, and the facts that are the source of the utterance.
This new pragmatic approach to truth is criticized by some as being’reductionist’ or’minimalist’. It is also criticised for neglecting the role of experience in establishing truth, and for failing to provide an account of how knowledge of the world and its laws is acquired that is independent of our experiences.
In contemporary philosophy, pragmatism is still a very popular framework for thought, with some philosophers extending it to areas such as politics and ethics, philosophy of religion, sociology and philosophy of law. For example, Habermas argues for the importance of discourse ethics, and he draws upon a broad range of pragmatist ideas to support his argument. Other philosophers, such as those working on issues in feminism, ecology and Native American philosophy, are also developing liberatory philosophical projects that look to pragmatism for inspiration.