Pragmatic
If someone is pragmatic, they’re able to take into account the practical, or real-world consequences of their actions. They’re able to think outside the box and make decisions based on what will work best in the situation. Often, these people are able to stay calm during a crisis and make clear, logical decisions. While some may see them as a cold, unfeeling person, others appreciate their ability to set emotion aside and get the job done.
In philosophy, pragmatism is an approach to philosophy that takes into account the real world and how it influences our beliefs and perceptions of the universe. It is a philosophical movement that has been developed by philosophers Charles Sanders Peirce, psychologist William James, and philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey among others.
Pragmatism focuses on how we understand meaning in language and how our understanding of the world is shaped by the context in which we live. It is a type of epistemology that recognizes that all knowledge is socially constructed and that we only gain understanding of the world through our experiences and the interpretation of those experiences.
While classical pragmatists developed a broad epistemological approach, contemporary pragmatists have also applied their ideas to other fields. For example, many liberal feminists (Seigfried 1996) and ecological thinkers apply pragmatism to their work. Other fields that have embraced pragmatism include sociology, Native American philosophy, and Latin American philosophy.
Another facet of pragmatism involves how we use language in conversation and the ways that our understanding of language impacts how we communicate with each other. This area of philosophy is known as pragmatics and has been influenced by the work of philosopher HP Grice. One of the main distinctions between semantics and pragmatics is that semantics focuses on the literal meaning of words, while pragmatics looks at the contextual implications of those words in particular circumstances.
For instance, if your boss talks to you about his new car or his favorite TV show, and you’re not interested in those topics, you might feel like they are monopolizing your time. The pragmatics of the situation is that your boss sees it as a simple sharing of information, while you view it as rude and invasive.
There are several different approaches to pragmatics, but most share a similar foundation of recognizing that truth is not an objective property of utterances. They also acknowledge that there are certain situations in which we cannot know an object’s true or false status. This enables pragmatists to develop a theory of meaning and communication that allows for a flexible and fluid understanding of the concept of truth in our day-to-day lives. A popular model of pragmatics is the five-step problem-solving process devised by Dewey and later studied and revised by Morgan (2014a). It includes detection of a socially situated research problem, determination that the research question has practical significance, identification of a line of inquiry, action to address the research question, and evaluation of the results of the inquiry.
