Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking

First articulated by Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey, and a major strain in late 19th- and early 20th-century philosophy, pragmatism had a number of historical roots. One of the most important was the society and culture of the United States. Indeed, it has been argued that American social experience, notably New England’s strong tradition of Puritanism, with its emphasis on hard work, industry, and practical virtues, influenced this branch of philosophy. Many Americans, from the colonial period onward, held the belief that life in the new country was a grand experiment, a test of ingenuity and human progress. European observers of the early republic, such as Alexis de Tocqueville, remarked on the new country’s strong emphasis on business, industry, and practical improvement at the expense of purely theoretical knowledge.

According to cultural historian Daniel Boorstin, early America fostered a novel conception of knowledge creation. Whereas European thought had been tied to elaborate and closed systems and formal institutions, Americans believed that lived experience rather than abstract principles should guide knowledge and action. Central to this belief was an openness to practical solutions; because Americans were learning on their feet, they had to constantly adapt to the unforeseen—a dynamic that could particularly be seen in the rugged and high-risk life of pioneers in the West. The keynote to this attitude was the belief that experience is the test for truth—exactly the idea that lies at the core of pragmatism. The idea was anticipated, for example, by Thomas Jefferson, who argued in Notes on the State of Virginia (1785) that truth would naturally prevail in a marketplace of ideas—an idea explicitly echoed in Pragmatism.

If pragmatism values common sense over abstraction, and because every human being’s experience is unique, pragmatism holds that truth is not the special preserve of professional thinkers, but belongs to everybody. James explicitly refers to pragmatism as democratic; his preference for pluralism (for example, in the dispute about the one versus the many) reflects a belief in the validity of the multiple perspectives as found, for example, in a diverse American society.

The pragmatic emphasis in American culture was rooted in the tradition of empiricism, part of the British philosophical heritage and frequently invoked by James in Pragmatism. Yet empiricism took on a new life thanks to the social experience of ordinary Americans and the intellectual work of a group of American philosophers that included James. In Pragmatism, James views empiricism as an American form of thought that can mediate between various Old World (European or Asian) philosophies.

Another factor in the development of pragmatism was the enormous technological change that transformed everyday life in the 19th century. James’s lifetime saw the invention of the automobile, the telephone, the telegraph, and the airplane, among many other innovations. To many, the new scientific age demanded different answers to the perennial questions of philosophy than traditional idealism could provide. Pragmatism met the needs of a newly pluralistic and active civilization.

Although the words “pragmatism” and “pragmatic” have taken on negative connotations in popular usage connected with the ruthless pursuit of goals in American business or politics, their use in philosophy reflects a complex intellectual history rooted in tradition and everyday social realities.