The word pragmatic is often used in everyday conversation, referring to someone who is practical and grounded in real-world considerations. Pragmatic individuals tend to be results-oriented and focus on achieving desired outcomes. They are often flexible, adaptable, and willing to compromise in order to get the job done. This approach is generally considered to be more effective than idealistic or philosophical approaches.
The term pragmatism has also been applied to a philosophical school of thought founded by Charles Peirce and later developed by James and Dewey. It is a philosophy that stresses the importance of experience and inquiry. In the modern era, pragmatism has become increasingly popular and has influenced many fields of study such as science, education, and social policy.
Peirce was the first philosopher to define pragmatism as a philosophy that seeks to develop meaning through incremental meaning-making. He also emphasized the importance of experience and observation as the primary way in which we gain knowledge. Peirce was an ardent supporter of James and Dewey, writing extensively on their work. In the modern era, a number of philosophers have contributed to a pragmatic revival, including William James, John Dewey, and Richard Rorty.
While some pragmatists have been critical of Peirce’s theory, others have built upon his foundation. Contemporary pragmatists have focused on issues such as the nature of reality, epistemology, and ethics. A pragmatist theory of truth emphasizes the role of inquiry and evidence in determining the value of statements, while a pragmatist ethics focuses on discourse ethics and a community of inquiry.
Increasingly, pragmatism’s intellectual centre of gravity is moving out of North America, with vibrant research networks appearing in South America, Scandinavia, and central Europe and China. There is an increased interest in the border between semantics and pragmatics, with scholars such as Carlo Dalla Pozza presenting a formal treatment of pragmatics which connects classical semantics (treating propositional content as either true or false) with intuitionistic semantics (dealing with illocutionary forces).
Philosophers such as Robert Brandom have contributed to the pragmatist revival with his contributions to philosophy of language, metaphysics, and epistemology. While he is not a pragmatist in the traditional sense, his views are informed by pragmatism through his readings of thinkers such as Sellars and Quine, and his teacher Rorty. He is particularly critical of the representationalism deplored by Rorty, developing a version of inferentialist semantics to liberate pragmatics from the notion that the function of language is to provide a transcript of reality. His ideas have had a significant influence on discourse ethics and the philosophy of law. He has also contributed to a pragmatist reconstruction of epistemology.