Pragmatic is the study of the practical aspects of human action and thought. It deals with what people actually do, say and think in the real world and focuses on their actual responses to ambiguity and uncertainty. Pragmatics also looks at implied meaning and how things are understood in context.
The word pragmatic comes from the Latin word for “to do.” It is an approach to philosophy that emphasizes the actual use of language in everyday life. It is a philosophy that believes that people make decisions based on what works best for them in their environment and their circumstances. It is a pragmatic approach to philosophy that allows it to be applied in many different areas of life.
The main philosophical pillars of pragmatism include the theory of naturalism, the philosophy of language, and a form of utilitarianism. In addition, it has contributed to many other areas of philosophical inquiry including epistemology, aesthetics and the philosophy of science.
One of the most notable contributions of pragmatism is its stance on epistemology. Unlike traditional epistemologies, which place truth in some kind of a priori relationship to experience, pragmatists hold that the only true knowledge is empirical knowledge. It is this knowledge that enables us to learn about the world around us and that is crucial for survival in a complex society.
Another important pillar of pragmatism is its theory of logic. Unlike traditional logical approaches that view logic as a system of rules that a person must follow to be right, classical pragmatists like Charles Sanders Peirce and John Dewey viewed it as a tool that could be used for the purpose of inquiry. This pragmatist view of logic led to the development of multiple methods for doing formal logic. This pragmatism has become a foundation for the pragmatic tradition in philosophical logic and communication studies.
Finally, pragmatism contributes to the philosophy of science, particularly with respect to scientific realism. It is a philosophy that encourages the use of multiple empirical methods in research and allows for the possibility of error and the indeterminacy of truth. It is this philosophical perspective that has shaped the work of contemporary philosophers, including Richard Rorty and Donald Davidson.
While the pragmatism of Peirce and Dewey is a central feature of this philosophy, more recent neo-pragmatists have developed new ideas about what it is for a statement to be true. These neo-pragmatists tend to focus on ideal warranted assertibility rather than the classical pragmatists’ correspondence theory of truth. This does not, however, mean that neo-pragmatists endorse the idea of truth as mere instrumentality or relativism; it only means that they do not view a correspondence theory as the only possible way to have a truthful statement.
