Pragmatism

Definition

Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that views language and thought as tools for prediction, problem solving, and action, rather than describing, representing, or mirroring reality. Pragmatists contend that most philosophical topics—such as the nature of knowledge, language, concepts, meaning, belief, and science—are best viewed in terms of their practical uses and successes.

Related concepts

A. J. Ayer A History of Western Philosophy A priori and a posteriori Abhidharma Abilene paradox Absolute (philosophy)Absolute idealism Absolute intrinsic value denial Abstract and concrete Academic Skepticism Academic bias Academic writing Achintya Bheda Abheda Action (philosophy)Action research Action theory (philosophy)Activism Actualism Adaptationism Administration & Society Adolf Grünbaum Advaita Vedanta Aesthetic emotions Aesthetic taste Aesthetic value Aesthetics African philosophy African traditional religions Africana philosophy Afterlife Agnosticism Agriculturalism Ajñana Alan Turing Alasdair MacIntyre Albert Schinz Alexander Bain (philosopher)Alexander Pruss Alexander Rosenberg Alfred Ayer Alfred I. Tauber Alfred North Whitehead Alfred Tarski Alice Crary Alms Alonzo Church Alternative hypothesis Alternatives to Darwinian evolution Altruism Alva Noë Alvin Goldman Alvin Plantinga Ambiguity American philosophy Analysis Analytic philosophy Analytic pragmatism Analytic theology Analytical Marxism Analytical Thomism Analytical feminism Analytic–synthetic distinction Anarchism Ancient Egyptian philosophy Ancient Greek philosophy Ancient Roman philosophy Ancient philosophy Andy Clark Anecdotal evidence Anekantavada Anima mundi Animal machine Anthony Weston Anthropology Anti-realism Antihumanism Antipositivism Antithesis Antony Flew Applied epistemology Applied ethics Applied philosophy Argument Argumentation theory Argumentum ad populum Aristotelianism Aristotle Art-based research Art methodology Arthur Fine Arthur Oncken Lovejoy Arthur W. Burks Artificial intelligence Atheism Atomism Attentional bias Attitude (psychology)Attitude change Attitude polarization Auguste Comte Augustinianism Australian philosophy Australian realism Authoritarianism Autoethnography Autonomy Averroism Avicennism Axiology Axiom Axis mundi Aztec philosophy BBC Baháʼí Faith Bandwagon effect Barry Stroud Baruch Spinoza Bas van Fraassen Basic belief Beauty Behaviorism Belief Belief bias Berlin Circle Bernard Williams Bertrand Russell Bhedabheda Bias Bibliometrics Bioethics Biological naturalism Bob Fischer (philosopher)Brainwashing British idealism British philosophy Bruno Latour Buddhism Buddhist philosophy Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Burial Byzantine philosophy C. D. Broad C. I. Lewis C. Wright Mills Calendar Caodaism Capitalism Carl Gustav Hempel Carla Fehr Cartesianism Cartography Case study Casimir Lewy Caste Catastrophism Causal theory of reference Causality Censorship Ceremony Certainty Chan Buddhism Charisma Charity (practice)Charles Cooley Charles Darwin Charles Hartshorne Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce bibliography Charles Stevenson (philosopher)Charles Taylor (philosopher)Charles W. 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Heath Daniel Dennett Danish philosophy Darwinism Data David Chalmers David Hull (philosopher)David Hume David Kaplan (philosopher)David Lewis (philosopher)David Malet Armstrong Deconstruction Deductive-nomological model Deductive reasoning Definitions of education Deflationary theory of truth Deindividuation Deity Demarcation problem Denis Noble Deontology Dependent and independent variables Deprogramming Derek Parfit Descriptive research Descriptive statistics Descriptivist theory of names Design of experiments Designer baby Destiny Determinism Deviant logic Dharmakirti Dialectic Dialetheism Discourse analysis Disgust Dispositio Distributism Doctrine Doctrine of internal relations Dogmatism Donald Davidson (philosopher)Doublethink Dualism in cosmology Dutch philosophy Duty Dvaita Vedanta Dysgenics E. O. Wilson Early modern philosophy Eastern Orthodox Church Eastern philosophy Echo chamber (media)Economics Ecstasy (emotion)Ecstasy (philosophy)Edgar Arthur Singer, Jr.Edmund Gettier Edmund Husserl Edo neo-Confucianism Education Edward N. Zalta Eleatics Elegance Eliminative materialism Elliott Sober Embodied philosophy Emergence Emergent materialism Emergentism Emotion Emotional contagion Emotivism Empirical evidence Empiricism Employment Entertainment Entitativity Environmentalism Epic poetry Epicureanism Epiphenomenalism Epistemic cognition Epistemic modal logic Epistemological anarchism Epistemological particularism Epistemology Eretrian school Ernest Nagel Ernest Sosa Ernst Mally Ernst Mayr Eroticism Eschatology Ethics Ethiopian philosophy Ethnic religion Ethnic stereotype Ethnocentrism Ethnography Etiology Etiquette Eugenics Euphemism Event (philosophy)Everything Evidence Evidence-based practice Evolution Evolutionary epistemology Evolutionary ethics Evolutionary taxonomy Evolutionism Exact sciences Excommunication Existence Existence of God Existentialism Experience Experiment Experimental philosophy Experimental psychology Experimentalism Experimentalist Explanation Explanatory power Extremism F. C. S. Schiller Fact Factoid Factual relativism Faith Faith and rationality Fallacy Fallibilism False consensus effect Falsifiability Family Family values Fanaticism Fascism Fatalism Fearmongering Feminism Feminist method Feminist philosophy Fiction Fictionalism Fideism Field experiment Field research Filter bubble Finitism First-order logic Folie à deux Folklore Food and drink prohibitions Forced conversion Formal epistemology Formalism (art)Formalism (mathematics)Foundationalism Founders of statistics Foundherentism Framing (social sciences)Francis Bacon Francisco J. Ayala Francisco Varela Frank Cameron Jackson Frank P. Ramsey Frank Plumpton Ramsey Frankfurt School Franz Brentano François Jacob Fred Dretske Free will French philosophy Friedrich Waismann Functional contextualism Functional psychology Functionalism (philosophy of mind)Fundamentalism Funeral Future G. E. M. Anscombe G. E. Moore Galileo Galilei Game George Berkeley George Herbert Mead George Santayana Gerard Verschuuren German idealism German philosophy Gilbert Ryle Giovanni Papini Giovanni Vailati Glenn McGee Globalism Gnosis Golden Rule Good reasons approach Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottlob Frege Graham Priest Green politics Grounded theory Group action (sociology)Group cohesiveness Group dynamics Group emotion Group polarization Groupshift Groupthink Guilt (emotion)Hans Hahn (mathematician)Hans Jonas Hans Reichenbach Happiness Hard and soft science Hard determinism Hard incompatibilism Hard problem of consciousness Harmony Hedonism Hegelian Hegelianism Helen Longino Hellenistic philosophy Henri Bergson Henri Poincaré Herd behavior Hermeneutics Hilary Putnam Hindu philosophy Hinduism Historical epistemology Historical method Historical negationism Historical revisionism Historicism Historiography History History and philosophy of science History of biology History of philosophy History of philosophy in Finland History of philosophy in Poland Holiday Holism Holism in science Homophily Honour How We Think Hu Shih Huayan Hull House Human intelligence Human rights Human sexuality Human subject research Humanism Humberto Maturana Huw Price Hygiene Hyperbolic doubt Hypostatic abstraction Hypothesis Hypothetico-deductive model Hysterical contagion Hòa Hảo Ian Hacking Idea Idealism Identity (philosophy)Ideological repression Ideology Idios kosmos Ignoramus et ignorabimus Illuminationism Illusion Immanuel Kant Imperialism Imre Lakatos In-group and out-group In-group favoritism In Our Time (radio series)Incarnation Incompatibilism Indian philosophy Indiana Philosophy Ontology Project Indigenous American philosophy Individualism Indoctrination Indonesian philosophy Inductionism Inductive reasoning Industrialisation Infallibilism Inferentialism Infinitism Informal logic Information Information cascade Inquiry Institution Institutional theory of art Instrumentalism Intellectualism Intelligence Intentionality Interactionism (philosophy of mind)Interdisciplinarity Internalism and externalism International relations Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Intertheoretic reduction Interview Introspection Intuition Intuitionism Invisible hand Ionian School (philosophy)Iranian philosophy Irreligion Isaac Levi Isaac Newton Islam Islamic philosophy Islamism Italian idealism Italian philosophy J. J. C. Smart J. L. Austin J. L. Mackie Jaakko Hintikka Jacques Monod Jaegwon Kim Jain philosophy Jainism James F. Conant James H. Tufts James Mark Baldwin James R. Griesemer Jan Łukasiewicz Jane Addams Jane Maienschein Japanese philosophy Jared Diamond Jason Stanley Jean-Paul Sartre Jerome Schneewind Jerry Fodor Jewish philosophy Joan Roughgarden John Beatty (philosopher)John Dewey John Dupré John J. Stuhr John Lachs John Locke John Maynard Smith John McDowell John Rawls John Searle John Searle (American philosopher)Jonas Salk Joseph Margolis Josiah Royce Journal of Speculative Philosophy Judaism Judeo-Islamic philosophies (800–1400)Judgement Jurisprudence Just war theory Justice Justification (epistemology)Jürgen Habermas Kalam Kantianism Kardecist spiritism Karl-Otto Apel Karl Pearson Karl Popper Keith Donnellan Kim Sterelny Kin selection Knowledge Kokugaku Konrad Lorenz Korean Confucianism Korean philosophy Korean shamanism Krausism Kurt Gödel Kyoto School Lamarckism Language Language of thought hypothesis Larry Laudan Laurent Thévenot Law Legal positivism Legalism (Chinese philosophy)Liberalism Libertarianism Libertarianism (metaphysics)Liberty Life stance Lifestyle (social sciences)Liminality Lindley Darden Linguistic turn Linguistics List of Slovene philosophers List of Turkish philosophers List of cognitive biases List of epistemologists List of fallacies List of philosophers of mind List of philosophers of science List of schools of philosophy List of world folk-epics Literary criticism Literature review Liturgy Logic Logical atomism Logical positivism Logical possibility Logical truth Logicism Love Luc Boltanski Ludwig Wittgenstein Lwów–Warsaw school Lynching MIT Press Madhyamaka Magic (supernatural)Magical thinking Magnificence (history of ideas)Majoritarianism Manipulation (psychology)Marjorie Grene Mark Johnson (professor)Marriage Martin Heidegger Marvin Minsky Marxist philosophy Mary Parker Follett Masculism Mass action (sociology)Mass psychogenic illness Materialism Mathematical logic Matter (philosophy)Maurice Merleau-Ponty Maxim (philosophy)Mazdakism Meaning-making Meaning (philosophy)Meaning of life Measurement Media bias Media manipulation Media regulation Medical ethics Medieval philosophy Meditations on First Philosophy Megarian school Meme Memeplex Memory Mental event Mental image Mental model Mental representation Mental state Meta-analysis Meta-ethics Meta-knowledge Metaepistemology Metanarrative Metaphilosophy Metaphysical naturalism Metaphysical necessity Metaphysical realism Metaphysics Methodology Michael Dummett Michael Ghiselin Michael Polanyi Michael Ruse Michael Tye (philosopher)Michael Walzer Michel Callon Michel Crozier Middle Eastern philosophy Middle Platonism Mike Sandbothe Milieu control Militarism Mill's methods Mind Mindset Mind–body dualism Mind–body problem Miracle Misanthropy Missionary Mithraism Mob rule Mobbing Modal logic Modal realism Modality (semantics)Model-dependent realism Modern paganism Modern philosophy Modernism Mohism Monarchism Monism Moral absolutism Moral entrepreneur Moral nihilism Moral panic Moral particularism Moral realism Moral skepticism Moral universalism Morality Moritz Schlick Morton White Multimethodology Mutationism Myth and ritual Mythology Mīmāṃsā Nancy Cartwright (philosopher)Narrative inquiry Nathan Salmon National epic National myth Nationalism Natural Ontological Attitude Natural kind Natural law Natural philosophy Naturalism (philosophy)Naturalized epistemology Nature Nature (philosophy)Navya-Nyāya Naïve realism Necessitarianism Ned Block Nelson Goodman Neo-Confucianism Neo-Hegelianism Neo-Kantianism Neo-Marxism Neo-scholasticism Neologism Neoplatonism Neopragmatism Neopragmatist Neopythagoreanism Neurophenomenology Neurophilosophy Neutral monism New Confucianism New York Intellectuals New historicism New legal realism New mysterianism Newtonianism Nicholas Rescher Nicholas St. John Green Nicholas Wolterstorff Nihilism Nimbarka Sampradaya Noam Chomsky Nominalism Non-classical logic Non-science Nondualism Nonfiction Norm (philosophy)Norman Malcolm Normative Normative ethics Normative science Nothing Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Null hypothesis Nyaya Oath Objective idealism Objectivism Objectivity (philosophy)Obligation Observation Observational error Observational learning Observer-expectancy effect Occam's razor Occamism Occasionalism Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.Ontological Ontology Operations research Opinion Optics Optimism Order of Friars Minor Ordinary language philosophy Origin myth Orthogenesis Otherworld Otto Neurath Outline of epistemology Outline of philosophy Outsourcing P. F. Strawson Pacifism Pacifist Pain (philosophy)Pakistani philosophy Panpsychism Paraconsistent logic Paradigm Paradox of analysis Participatory democracy Patricia Churchland Patricia M. Shields Patrick Bateson Patrick Suppes Paul Churchland Paul E. Griffiths Paul Edwards (philosopher)Paul Feyerabend Paul Grice Paul Weiss (philosopher)Peace Peer pressure Perception Performance measurement Performativity Peripatetic school Perspectivism Persuasion Pessimism Peter Galison Peter Geach Peter Godfrey-Smith Peter Singer Peter van Inwagen Phenomenalism Phenomenalist Phenomenography Phenomenology (philosophy)Phenomenology (sociology)PhilPapers Philip Kitcher Philippa Foot Philosophical analysis Philosophical logic Philosophical methodology Philosophical pessimism Philosophical razor Philosophical realism Philosophical skepticism Philosophical theory Philosophical tradition Philosophical zombie Philosophy Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature Philosophy in Canada Philosophy in Malta Philosophy in Taiwan Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard Philosophy of archaeology Philosophy of artificial intelligence Philosophy of biology Philosophy of chemistry Philosophy of economics Philosophy of education Philosophy of geography Philosophy of history Philosophy of information Philosophy of language Philosophy of linguistics Philosophy of mathematics Philosophy of mind Philosophy of perception Philosophy of physics Philosophy of psychology Philosophy of religion Philosophy of science Philosophy of self Philosophy of social science Philosophy of space and time Philosophy of war Physicalism Physics Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Duhem Piety Pilgrimage Pittsburgh School Placebo Plato Platonic Academy Platonic realism Platonism Play (activity)Pluralism (philosophy)Pluralist school Pluralistic ignorance Point of view (philosophy)Polite fiction Political correctness Political engineering Political freedom Political myth Political philosophy Political science Positivism Possible world Post-structuralism Postanalytic philosophy Postcritique Posthumanism Postmodern philosophy Postmodernism Postpositivism Practical philosophy Pragmatic ethics Pragmatic idealism Pragmatic maxim Pragmatic theory of truth Pragmaticism Pragmatics Pragmatism (disambiguation)Praxeology Pre-Socratic philosophy Prediction Premise Presupposition Prima facie Primal world beliefs Principle Problem of evil Problem of induction Problem of other minds Problem solving Process philosophy Progressivism Propaganda Propaganda model Property dualism Propositional attitude Proselytism Protoscience Prudence Pseudoconsensus Pseudoscience Psychological warfare Psychophysical parallelism Public administration Public morality Pudgalavada Punishment Pyrrhonism Pythagoreanism Qualia Qualitative research Quality (philosophy)Quantitative research Quasi-experiment Questionable cause Quietism (philosophy)R. M. Hare Radical empiricism Radical politics Randolph Bourne Rastafari Rationalism Rationality Reality Reality tunnel Reason Received view of theories Recluse Reductionism Reflective equilibrium Reform Reformed epistemology Reformism Reinhold Niebuhr Relationship between religion and science Relativism Relevance Religion Religious conversion Religious cosmology Religious ecstasy Religious education Religious law Religious persecution Religious uniformity Renaissance humanism Renaissance philosophy René Descartes Repentance Representationalist Republicanism Research Research design Research ethics Research proposal Research question Revelation Reverence (emotion)Revolution Rhetoric Rhetoric of science Richard Dawkins Richard J. Bernstein Richard Lewontin Richard Rorty Richard Shusterman Richard Swinburne Rights Rigid designator Rigour Rite of passage Ritual Ritual purification Robert Audi Robert B. Talisse Robert Brandom Robert L. Holmes Robert Nozick Roberta Millstein Roberto Unger Roderick Chisholm Roger Bacon Rolf Sattler Romanian philosophy Rudolf Carnap Rudolf Steiner Russian cosmism Russian philosophy Ruth Millikan Sahotra Sarkar Samkhya Sandra Mitchell Sarvastivada Saul Kripke Sautrāntika Scapegoating Schema (psychology)Scholasticism School of Names School of Naturalists School of the Sextii School of thought Schopenhauer Science studies Scientific Revolution Scientific anti-realism Scientific essentialism Scientific evidence Scientific formalism Scientific law Scientific method Scientific modelling Scientific pluralism Scientific realism Scientific skepticism Scientific theory Scientism Scoping review Scotism Scottish philosophy Second Sophistic Secondary research Secular coming-of-age ceremony Secularity Selective exposure theory Selective perception Self-censorship Self-deception Self-fulfilling prophecy Self-organization Semantic view of theories Semantics (natural language)Sense data Sentientism Serfdom Set (psychology)Settlement movement Sextus Empiricus Sexual ethics Shinto Shuddhadvaita Sidney Hook Sikhism Simon and Schuster Simulation Sin Slavery Social action Social anthropology Social behavior Social change Social class Social constructionism Social contract Social control Social democracy Social emotions Social engineering (political science)Social epistemology Social exclusion Social experiment Social facilitation Social facilitation in animals Social group Social influence Social norm Social organization Social philosophy Social progress Social proof Social psychology Social reality Social status Social stigma Socialism Sociology Sociology of scientific ignorance Sociology of scientific knowledge Socratic method Solipsism Sophist Soul Southern Illinois University Spandrel (biology)Spanish philosophy Spinozism Spontaneous order Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Stanford School Stanley Fish Statistical inference Status quo Status quo bias Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Toulmin Stephen Yablo Stereotype Stewardship Stigmergy Stoicism Structuralism Structuralism (biology)Structuralism (philosophy of science)Style (visual arts)Subjective idealism Subjectivism Sublime (philosophy)Substance dualism Subtle realism Suffering Sufi philosophy Supernatural Supervenience Suppression of dissent Supreme Court of the United States Survey (human research)Susan Haack Susan Oyama Svatantrika–Prasaṅgika distinction Swarm behaviour Symbol Symbolic boundaries Symbolic interactionism Sympathy System justification Systematic review Systemic bias Systemics Systems Syādvāda Taboo Tabula rasa Tacit assumption Taoism Teleology Teleology in biology Tenrikyo Testability Testimony The Bertrand Russell Case The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods The Life of Reason The Metaphysical Club The Philadelphia Negro The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Theistic evolution Theodicy Theology Theoretical philosophy Theory Theory-ladenness Theory choice Theory of everything Thomas Aquinas Thomas Kuhn Thomas Nagel Thomism Thought Thought experiment Tiantai Tibetan Buddhism Tim Lewens Time Timothy Williamson Tool Tradition Transactionalism Transcendence (religion)Transcendental idealism Transcendentalism Tree of life (biology)Trust (social science)Truth Two Dogmas of Empiricism Tyler Burge Type physicalism Ubuntu philosophy Umwelt Unclean animal Underdetermination Understanding Uniformitarianism Unitarian Universalism Unity of knowledge and action Unity of opposites Unity of science Universal pragmatics Universals University of Chicago Press Unobservable Unspoken rule Urban planning Utilitarianism Vagueness Vaisheshika Value system Value theory Values education Vanderbilt University Press Variable and attribute (research)Vasubandhu Vedanta Veganism Verificationism Vice Vienna Circle Vietnamese philosophy Viral phenomenon Virtue Virtue epistemology Virtue ethics Vishishtadvaita Vitalism W. D. Ross W. E. B. Du Bois W. V. O. Quine W. V. Quine Wang Yangming Weltschmerz Western Marxism Western philosophy Wilfrid Sellars Wilhelm Windelband Willard Van Orman Quine Willard van Orman Quine William C. Wimsatt William James William Lane Craig Wisdom Wishful thinking Women's rights Woozle effect Work of art World disclosure Worldview Worship Wrongdoing Xuanxue Yangism Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Yogachara Yugoslav philosophy Zen Zhuang Zhou Zoroastrianism Zurvanism Ājīvika Śūnyatā

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