Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that
includes those who claim that an ideology or proposition is true if it works
satisfactorily, that the meaning of a proposition is to be found in the
practical consequences of accepting it, and that unpractical ideas are to be
rejected. Pragmatism originated in the United States during the latter quarter
of the nineteenth century. Although it has significantly influenced
non-philosophers—notably in the fields of law, education, politics, sociology,
psychology, and literary criticism—this article deals with it only as a
movement within philosophy.
The term “pragmatism” was first used in print
to designate a philosophical outlook about a century ago when William James
(1842-1910) pressed the word into service during an 1898 address entitled
“Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results,” delivered at the University
of California (Berkeley). James scrupulously swore, however, that the term had
been coined almost three decades earlier by his compatriot and friend C. S.
Peirce (1839-1914). (Peirce, eager to distinguish his doctrines from the views
promulgated by James, later relabeled his own position “pragmaticism”—a name,
he said, “ugly enough to be safe from kidnappers.”) The third major figure in
the classical pragmatist pantheon is
John Dewey (1859-1952), whose wide-ranging writings had considerable
impact on American intellectual life for a half-century. After Dewey, however,
pragmatism lost much of its momentum.
There has been a recent resurgence of interest
in pragmatism, with several high-profile philosophers exploring and selectively
appropriating themes and ideas embedded in the rich tradition of Peirce, James,
and Dewey. While the best-known and most controversial of these so-called “neo-pragmatists”
is Richard Rorty, the following contemporary philosophers are often considered
to be pragmatists: Hilary Putnam, Nicholas Rescher, Jürgen Habermas, Susan
Haack, Robert Brandom, and Cornel West.
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