Pragmatism is the philosophical posture that defends that a philosophical and scientific knowledge can only be considered true according to its practical consequences. This position emerges between the cultural atmosphere and the metaphysical concerns of American intellectuals in the 19th century, and reached its peak within the philosophical currents that reacted to positivism.

Currently, pragmatism is a concept that is quite used and extended not only in philosophy, but in many areas of social life, it is even beginning to be identified as a philosophical attitude, with which we can say that its postulates have been transformed and applied in many different ways. We will now make a very general review of its history and some key concepts.

What is pragmatism?

Pragmatism is a philosophical system that formally emerged in 1870 in the United States and that, broadly speaking, proposes that only knowledge that has a practical utility is valid .

It is mainly developed under the proposals of Charles Sanders Peirce (who is considered the father of pragmatism), William James and later John Dewey. Pragmatism is also influenced by the knowledge of Chauncey Wright, as well as by the postulates of Darwinian theory and English utilitarianism.

At the end of the 20th century, its influence declined significantly. Nevertheless, it gained popularity again towards the 1970s, with authors such as Richard Rorty, Hilary Putnam and Robert Brandom; as well as Philip Kitcher and How Price, who have been recognized as the “New Pragmatists”.

Some key concepts

Over time we have used many tools to ensure that we can adapt to the environment and that we can make use of its elements (i.e. survive).

Undoubtedly, many of these tools have emerged from philosophy and science. Precisely, pragmatism suggests that the main task of philosophy and science should be to generate knowledge that is practical and useful for such purposes.

In other words, the maxim of pragmatism is that hypotheses should be drawn up according to what would be their practical consequences. This suggestion has had an impact on more specific concepts and ideas, for example, on the definition of ‘truth’, on how to delimit the starting point of research, and on the understanding and relevance of our experiences.

The truth

What pragmatism does is to stop paying attention to the substance, the essence, the absolute truth or the nature of the phenomena, in order to attend to their practical results. Thus, scientific and philosophical thought no longer aims to know metaphysical truths , but to generate the necessary tools so that we can make use of what surrounds us and adapt to it according to what is considered appropriate.

In other words, thought is only valid when it is useful to ensure the preservation of certain ways of life, and serves to ensure that we will have the tools to adapt to them. Philosophy and scientific knowledge have one main purpose: to detect and satisfy needs .

In this way, the content of our thoughts is determined by the way we use them. All the concepts we build and use are not an infallible representation of the truth, but we find them true in hindsight, once they have served us well.

In contrast with other proposals of philosophy (especially Cartesian skepticism that doubted experience because it trusted fundamentally in the rational), pragmatism raises an idea of truth that is not substantial, essential or rational , but that exists insofar as it is useful to preserve ways of life; a question that is reached through the terrain of experience.

The experience

Pragmatism questions the separation that modern philosophy had made between cognition and experience. It says that experience is a process by which we obtain the information that helps us recognize our needs. That is why pragmatism has been considered in some contexts as a form of empiricism .

Experience is what gives us the material to create knowledge, but not because it contains special information by itself, but because we acquire that information when we come into contact with the outside world (when we interact and experience it).

Thus, our thinking is constructed when we experience things that we assume are caused by the external elements, but that, in reality, acquire meaning only at the moment we perceive them through our senses. The one who experiences is not a passive agent who only receives external stimuli, but rather an active agent who interprets them.

One of the criticisms of pragmatism has been derived from this: for some people it seems to maintain a sceptical stance towards world events.

Research

In line with the two previous concepts, pragmatism holds that the focus of epistemological concerns should not be to demonstrate how absolute knowledge or truth about a phenomenon is acquired.

Rather, these concerns should be oriented towards understanding how we can create research methods that contribute to making some idea of progress feasible . Research is then a communal and active activity, and the method of science has a self-correcting character, for example, it has the possibility of being verified and weighted.

It follows that the scientific method is the experimental method par excellence, and the material is empirical. Likewise, research begins with posing a problem in the face of a situation that is indeterminate, that is, research serves to replace doubts with established and well-founded beliefs .

The researcher is a subject who obtains empirical material from the experimental interventions, and raises the hypotheses according to the consequences that his own actions would have. Thus, research questions must be aimed at solving concrete problems.

Science, its concepts and theories, are an instrument (not a transcription of reality) and are intended to achieve a specific purpose: to facilitate an action.

Bibliographic references:

  • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2013). Pragmatism. Retrieved May 3, 2018. Available at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pragmatism/#PraMax
  • Sini, C. (1999). Pragmatism. Akal: Madrid.
  • Jos, H. (1998). Pragmatism and the theory of society. Centro de las Investigaciones Sociológicas. Retrieved May 3, 2018. Available at https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/POSO/article/viewFile/POSO0000330177A/24521
  • Torroella, G. (1946). Pragmatism. General characterization. Cuban Journal of Philosophy, 1(1): 24-31.