A person or action is pragmatic if it’s practical, logical, or sensible. People who are pragmatic tend to think about how a given idea might work in reality or in different situations, rather than sticking strictly to their ideals. A pragmatic approach is often preferred in the workplace, for example, when deciding on which project to pursue or how to handle a difficult situation. A pragmatic approach is also often preferable when deciding how to raise children.
A pragmatic definition of truth is “that which works.” This idea is a fundamental aspect of the pragmatist philosophical tradition, and it’s also a guiding principle in the practice of pragmatics. Pragmatics is the study of how language and meaning function in a particular context. This is contrasted with semantics, which deals with the actual objects or ideas that a word might denote, and syntax, which looks at how words are combined to form meaningful sentences.
While pragmatics is often regarded as a subfield of semantics, it is also considered a separate philosophical discipline with its own rigor. Many scholars see pragmatism as an alternative to traditional epistemology, and the philosophy of pragmatism has gained in popularity since Richard Rorty’s bold and iconoclastic attack on mainstream epistemology.
Although pragmatism started out as a purely heuristic, it is now widely accepted that the philosophy has broader implications for philosophical thought. Contemporary philosophers working in areas as diverse as feminism, ecology, Native American philosophy, and Latin America look to pragmatism as their philosophical home.
In some circles, pragmatic is used as a synonym for utilitarian, a philosophical view that prioritizes usefulness over all else. But the pragmatist tradition has its own philosophy of value, and it goes well beyond utilitarianism. A pragmatic philosopher believes that knowledge is worth having only when it’s helpful for inquiry and action. It also rejects the idea that beliefs represent reality or that they have a fixed meaning, as is typically assumed by those who subscribe to scientific materialism, which says that all meaningful experiences and beliefs can be reduced to physical phenomena.
Pragmatics is a large field, with many subfields and specialties. For instance, there are formal and computational pragmatics; theoretical and applied pragmatics; game-theoretic and clinical pragmatics; intercultural, experimental, and neuropragmatics; and historical pragmatics. In addition, a number of academic journals focus on the topic, including the Journal of Pragmatics and the International Journal of Pragmatics.
Whether it’s your ability to politely hedge a request or cleverly read between the lines of a conversation, your pragmatic skills allow you to navigate ambiguity and understand the subtleties of human communication. You can thank your pragmatic knowledge for the way you negotiate turn-taking norms in conversations, use adverbs to convey meaning, or interpret non-literal expressions.
When you’re trying to decide how best to proceed in a difficult situation, your pragmatic knowledge helps you weigh the pros and cons of each course of action. In other words, your pragmatic abilities are what make it possible to make smart decisions that work in real life.
