Pragmatic refers to a way of thinking that prioritizes practicality and feasibility over abstract theories or principles. A pragmatic person tends to be able to make clear, calm decisions in the face of a crisis, as opposed to those who are more dogmatic about their beliefs and easily swayed by fear or heightened emotions.
During the late 19th century, three American philosophers—James, Mead and Dewey—used the term “pragmatism” to describe their common outlook on life. They were especially critical of metaphysical doctrines that relegate change and action to the bottom of the hierarchy of values. These philosophers believed that we can know truth only by the way it works in practice, and that knowledge must serve as a tool for adapting to reality and controlling it.
By the early 20th century, however, pragmatism had begun to lose its luster as an analytical philosophical movement. As philosophizing moved away from grand synoptic schemes of everything that matters in life to specialized, narrowly defined academic disciplines like logic and the philosophy of science, the pragmatists were largely ignored and their reputations suffered greatly. By the mid-1920s, even the eminent pragmatist Charles S. Peirce was being relegated to the back pages of history books, and their ideas were being supplanted by those of a younger generation that came to be known as analytic philosophers.
Today, pragmatics is a broad field that covers many topics. For example, one subfield, pragmatics of language, deals with the meanings of utterances in their natural context, rather than their conventional meanings. It also considers social, cultural and situational factors that influence how we interpret what others say.
Another broad topic is pragmatic epistemology, which examines the relationship between epistemology and practical experience. It also explores how we can know something is true, and how we should respond to evidence that might contradict our current beliefs.
Applied pragmatics, meanwhile, is used in fields as diverse as psychology and business to explain how people make sense of the world around them. It addresses the ways that we use and understand language, the ways in which we interact with other people, and how we manage to get things done in the world.
In the business and political realms, a pragmatic approach is often seen as the best way to achieve results. For instance, companies often hire employees who are pragmatic because they have the ability to prioritize goals and solve problems in a way that will lead to success. This is in contrast to a more dogmatic approach to work, which often emphasizes strict moral code and an inflexible set of rules that cannot be changed or discarded. The right person for the job will balance vision with pragmatism to ensure that long-term objectives can be met. In politics, a pragmatic candidate will be the one who can think logically and stay calm during stressful times.
