Pragmatic
A philosophical outlook that places the value of ideas and theories in their practical results or consequences. A major pragmatist is William James (1842-1910), though he scrupulously swore that he did not coin the term “pragmatism.” The philosophy of John Dewey and Charles Sanders Peirce are also pragmatic.
Dewey’s pragmatic philosophy had a large influence on American intellectual life for a half-century, and pragmatist views were influential in education, psychology, and social work. Dewey was also a major figure in the field of metaphysics, developing a theory of experience and a critique of materialism.
But pragmatism, like all philosophical views, has flaws. The most obvious one is that just because something generates acceptable or desirable results does not necessarily make it true. For example, telling a child that there are invisible gremlins in electrical outlets who will bite him if he touches them certainly works to keep him from touching the outlets. But the gremlins may be imaginary. Thus, the statement is not actually true on a philosophical level and does not actually help the child to achieve his goals or needs.
Another problem is that pragmatism does not always have the desired result in certain contexts, such as when it is applied to morality. It can be used as a tool to rationalize immoral acts, such as the enslavement of blacks, and it can be used to justify blatantly neo-Nazi or fascist beliefs. For these reasons, pragmatism has not been as popular as it might have been.
Nevertheless, the pragmatic perspective continues to be useful, especially in areas such as language and logic. It is also the philosophical background that has given rise to the science of semiotics, which deals with the signs and meanings of things. In addition, the pragmatic approach has been useful in the areas of ethics and philosophy of religion.
The philosophy of pragmatism was further developed by such figures as George Herbert Mead and W. E. B. Du Bois, and the pragmatic perspectives upon experience were incorporated into feminist philosophy by Jane Addams and Mary Parker Follett. The pragmatic philosophy has also been used by such analytic philosophers as Quine, Carnap, and Wittgenstein in their challenges to positivist orthodoxy.
The philosophical movement that originated in the early 1900s has been called many names, including naturalism, existentialism, functional analysis, and cultural realism. But a pragmatic approach is best identified by its focus on the way we use words to communicate, the ways that people use their beliefs to guide their actions, and the ways that we evaluate the success of our own beliefs and actions. Pragmatics is an important part of linguistic studies and philosophy, as well as in the fields of history, psychology, economics, and medicine. It has been criticized by some as uncritical and relativistic, but it is still a valuable philosophical method and a significant source of insight into human behavior and the world around us.
