Pragmatic is a philosophical tradition that embraces a wide range of ideas, including pragmatism itself, semiotics and linguistics, ethics, philosophy of science, and social and political philosophy. It is characterized by the emphasis on communication and meaning in context, rather than on traditional ideas of truth or meaning.
The word pragmatic comes from a Greek root that means ‘practical’, and the term pragmatics refers to the study of how things work, how people use language in conversation, and what kind of meaning is derived from the context of a statement or action. Pragmatics is often considered to be a ‘third alternative’ to analytic and continental traditions of philosophy, though it has also been influential within both.
The earliest pragmatist thinkers were known as the ‘classical pragmatists’ and included Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), who defined and defended pragmatism, and his friend and colleague William James (1842-1910). Their works helped to give rise to a scientific revolution around evolutionary theory, of which they were keen observers and sometime participants.
After the first pragmatist generation died out, pragmatism went into decline as analytic philosophy blossomed as the dominant methodological approach in Anglo-American philosophy departments. But pragmatism has experienced a revival since the 1970s, with Richard Rorty’s (1931-2007) bold and iconoclastic attacks on mainstream epistemology (in which he viewed language as naively mirroring reality) birthing so-called neopragmatism and attracting a number of influential recent philosophers (such as Hilary Putnam, Robert Brandom and Huw Price).
Contemporary pragmatist writers have continued to reclaim classical pragmatism, developing a broad range of interpretations and applications. Some have sought to place pragmatist ideas within a wider Western philosophical context, for example exploring Peirce’s significant debt to Kant and connections with 19th century idealism (e.g. Stuhr 1997, Gava 2014). Others have strove to rehabilitate classical pragmatist ideals of objectivity (e.g. Susan Haack, Christopher Hookway and Cheryl Misak).
In his essay ‘The Present Dilemma in Philosophy’ published in 1907, William James set out what he believed was an irresolvable clash between two ways of thinking. He suggested that the ‘tough-minded’ favoured empiricist commitment to experience and going by ‘the facts’, while the ‘tender-minded’ preferred a priori principles which appealed to rationalization. Pragmatism promised to resolve this conflict, by redefining what it was that philosophy was really about.
Pragmatic knowledge enables us to politely hedge a request, cleverly read between the lines and negotiate turn-taking norms in conversation, and navigate ambiguity in context. This is why your knowledge of pragmatics gives you ‘common sense’; it’s what allows you to interpret meaning in the real world.
