Pragmatic is a philosophical movement or approach that emphasizes practical consequences as the essential criterion for determining meaning, truth, and value. Its name is derived from the Latin pragma, meaning “to do” or “to be done.” It may also refer to a specific type of pragmatic philosophy of language or communication. It is not to be confused with pragmatism, an American political ideology that advocates a view of politics based on pragmatic considerations, and the adjective pragmatic, which describes people who are practical in their actions or choices.

A key feature of pragmatism is the rejection of any fixed, absolute, or universal concepts of reality. Instead, beliefs are viewed as the result of a struggle for survival in the environment, with some beliefs becoming more valid or true in this context than others. Thus, all knowledge is relative to the individual and a constant process of inquiry is required. This is not to be interpreted as a form of anti-skepticism or even scientific skepticism, but as an approach that seeks a balance between anti-skepticism and fallibilism.

One of the main branches of pragmatism is pragmatics, which focuses on the users of language and the contextual aspects of linguistic interpretation. This is a different focus from semantics, which tends to focus on the conventional or literal meaning of a word, and syntax, which analyzes relationships between words and their uses. Pragmatics has several sub-disciplines, such as speech act theory, and conversational implicature theory, which are related to the theory of communication.

Another important branch of pragmatism is philosophical pragmatics, which examines the way philosophies and other disciplines use their concepts of logic and language. It seeks to connect thought and action, and has been adopted by applied fields like public administration, leadership studies, and business ethics.

The philosophies of Dewey and James are the most famous examples of pragmatics, but other philosophers have contributed to the concept, including Peirce and Rorty. The contemporary philosophical movement known as Cultural Realism is an attempt to reconcile some of the more extreme features of classical pragmatism with other aspects of Western philosophy, such as continental philosophy and postmodernism.