Pragmatism was a philosophical movement in the United States concerned with the relationship between abstract theory and practical activity, and with the value of philosophical reflection. Beginning with Charles Sanders Pierce (1839-1914) and William James (1842-1910), the Pragmatists stressed that the meaning of our concepts was determined principally by their practical consequences and that our epistemological practices were determined as much by personal value judgments (regarding, for example, our desire to maximize truth at the expense of cautiously avoiding error) as they are by objective standards of evidence. This consequently led to various Pragmatist theories of truth, arguing that a statement is true if it is useful to believe (James) or if it would be the stable result of a suitably conducted inquiry (Pierce). Both positions were intended more as an explication of the role “truth” plays in our lives rather than as strict logical definitions.
Pragmatism has had an enormous influence on subsequent American philosophy, as well as producing theories of jurisprudence, education, and the development of psychology as an autonomous discipline, while Pierce’s work on language and meaning forms the basis for contemporary semiotics.
