Pragmatic: How to Know It and Use It
The word pragmatic is a noun that means “practical.” A person who is pragmatic is guided by practical experience in making decisions. A pragmatic approach to a problem focuses on the outcome rather than the details. Pragmatic people and ideas are often thought of as realistic and logical.
Pragmatism is a philosophy that advocates a “what works” approach to ethics, morality, and other topics. It is also known as American pragmatism because many of its major proponents were and are Americans.
Philosophers who have influenced the movement include Charles Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and Richard Rorty. The pragmatism movement is rooted in the notion that truth is determined by real-life experiences. A proposition is true if it has practical effects, and falsehoods are determined by the absence of real-life consequences.
A person is a pragmatic philosopher if they are interested in real-life experiences and their implications for informed action. A pragmatic person is also willing to change his or her beliefs based on what happens in reality.
Many applied fields have incorporated pragmatism as a philosophy, including public administration, political science, leadership studies, and international relations. The concept of pragmatics is also used in the study of organizational behavior and human learning. The tenets of pragmatics are frequently applied to the debates surrounding religion and science, as well as in discussions about the role of government.
The field of pragmatics studies the relationship between words and their meaning. Its subfields focus on different aspects of language and how it is used in certain situations. For example, the subfield of pragmatics called speech act theory examines how speakers use linguistic expressions to carry out actions. Another pragmatic subfield is conversational implicature, which examines the ways in which a speaker’s actions and intentions influence what the listener understands.
For instance, a child may be very pragmatic about their interest in superheroes and be able to name all of the DC and Marvel characters along with their kryptonites. However, the same child might struggle to play a game of pretend with someone who has a very different pragmatic language than them.
It is important to remember that pragmatics applies to a specific situation and culture. A child raised in the United States will have a different pragmatic culture than one in India. Pragmatics can also be affected by different languages, religious views, and gender roles. All of these factors must be taken into consideration when determining what norms will work in a particular situation. In a global community, it is important to consider all of these factors when creating and implementing policy. Otherwise, the resulting policies can have negative, unintended consequences. For example, a pragmatic approach to slavery worked for the American slave owners in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but it did not work so well for the African slaves themselves. For this reason, it is important to take a holistic approach to problems and avoid focusing solely on individual results.
