Pragmatic is a term used to describe someone who can make decisions based on real-world circumstances and situations. They don’t get bogged down with big-picture ideals and emotions and can instead focus on practical issues at hand. A pragmatic person can see all sides of an issue and choose the best path forward without sacrificing their core values. The philosophical movement of pragmatism was a response to traditional assumptions about the nature of reality, knowledge, and inquiry and is an alternative to idealism and realism (Biesta 2010; Morgan 2014a).
Unlike idealists who believe that there is one true way of understanding reality, pragmatists recognize that there are multiple ways of knowing, interpreting, and experiencing the world. They view reality as a dynamic process of becoming, in which actions play a key role in changing existence. Therefore, they place great emphasis on action-oriented inquiry that is grounded in practical experience and the need to understand how things work in the real world (Henry 2000; Goldkuhl 2012).
A central theme of pragmatism is that the goal of knowledge should be to gain a deeper understanding of the world around us through practical experimentation and the gathering and analysis of relevant data. To this end, pragmatists have criticized the pursuit of pure theory and an uncritical reliance on science as the only source of truth (Morgan 2014a). Inquiry is a socially situated practice that requires researchers to interact with the people and environments in which they work. In a research context, this can be done by analyzing the existing beliefs of those involved in the research and exploring the potential consequences of various strategies for conducting research. This approach, known as pragmatism in research, is an alternative to epistemological and ontological concerns and places the priority on the research question (Greene and Caracelli 2003; Teddlie and Tashakkori 2009).
The term “pragmatic” can also be applied to the way that humans interpret and understand the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences in their everyday use. This is the domain of pragmatics and it is a major area of study in linguistics, communication, and psychology. A major branch of pragmatics is computational pragmatics, which focuses on how to create computer programs that can process natural human language and information more effectively. A specific example of computational pragmatics is reference resolution, which is the ability of a program to identify the context of an utterance in order to interpret what is being said. Another aspect of computational pragmatics is implicature, a concept introduced by the philosopher H.P. Grice in 1975. Invoking an implied meaning is possible through the manipulation of context and tone of voice. For example, if your boss says ‘What time do you call this?’ in an angry tone, you could interpret that as meaning he wants you to come into the office. Therefore, you would close the window by using the strategy of implicature. The more context you have available, the more likely it is that you can interpret an utterance in a certain way.
