Pragmatic is the ability to adapt one’s behavior in social situations. This is an important skill, since it allows a person to be successful in different situations, and also helps in understanding the behavior of others. Pragmatic skills include active listening, observation, and interpreting nonverbal cues. Practicing these skills can help people become more confident and effective communicators in everyday life.
A common example of pragmatic behavior is deciding how to split the bill after a restaurant meal with friends. A person might decide to divide the check evenly, even though it is a less desirable option. The decision is based on the social situation and the needs of everyone involved. In this case, the decision is pragmatic because it will allow all parties to be satisfied.
Pragmatism is a philosophy that originated in the United States around 1870, and continues to present a growing alternative to analytic and continental philosophical traditions worldwide. Its early proponents were Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) and his friend William James (1842-1910). Other influential pragmatists were Peirce’s Harvard colleague Josiah Royce (1855-1916) and the American philosopher Cornel West (1905-1989).
Early pragmatists argued that truth is a property of a belief or an attitude toward reality. They also argued that beliefs acquire meaning only as they are used in inquiry and action. They were adamant that knowledge is not an objective property of objects, and that a belief is true only when it represents reality (Peirce’s pragmatic maxim).
In the 20th century, pragmatism emerged as a full-fledged epistemology with wide-ranging implications for the entire philosophical field. Philosophers today work in a wide variety of fields that are affected by pragmatism, including philosophy of language, ethics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and metaphysics, as well as in the social sciences and other areas.
Among the most prominent contemporary philosophers who are pragmatists are Paul Ricoeur, who has developed an epistemology incorporating elements of pragmatism and phenomenology; John Dewey’s work on closing the gap between theory and experience is a major inspiration for pragmatism; and Habermas, who uses Peirce’s notion of the community of inquiry to develop a discourse ethics that aims to free communication from distortions by power and ideology.
However, neopragmatists such as Carnap, Morris, and Brandom have been accused of failing to incorporate Peirce’s pragmatist criterion of truth into their epistemologies, while Sellarsian pragmatists, who draw heavily on pragmatism, have been criticized for neglecting the relevance theory’s emphasis on pragmatic meaning. Recent research into linguistic pragmatics has shown that these concerns are not entirely misplaced. It is possible to construct a pragmatic epistemology that incorporates the relevant theory, but with a much more sophisticated account of semantics and an understanding of the nuances of natural language use. The resulting epistemology is sometimes called “critical pragmatics.”
