Pragmatism: what is it and what does this philosophical current propose?

This philosophical current does not so much seek to arrive at absolute truths as to satisfy needs.

Pragmatism is the philosophical position which defends that philosophical and scientific knowledge can only be considered true in terms of its practical consequences. This position emerged among 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 widely used and extended concept not only in philosophy, but also in many areas of social life, and it is even beginning to be identified as a philosophical attitude, so we can say that its postulates have been transformed and applied in many different ways. The following is a very general overview of its history and some key concepts.

• Related article, "How are psychology and philosophy similar?"

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 developed mainly 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.

In the 20th century, its influence declined significantly. in an important way. However, it regained popularity in 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 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 to those purposes.

In other words, the maxim of pragmatism is that hypotheses should be drawn in accordance with what would be their practical consequences. This suggestion has had repercussions 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 importance of our experiences.

Truth

What pragmatism does is to move away from paying attention to the substance, essence, absolute truth or nature of phenomena, to attend to their practical outcomes. Thus, scientific and philosophical thinking no longer have as their purpose to know metaphysical truthsbut to generate the necessary tools so that we can make use of what surrounds us and adapt ourselves to it according to what is considered adequate.

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

Thus, the content of our thoughts is determined by the way we use them. All the concepts we construct and use are not an infallible representation about truth, but we find them true a posteriori, once they have served us for something.

In contrast to other proposals in philosophy (especially Cartesian skepticism, which doubted experience because it relied fundamentally on the rational), pragmatism posits an idea of truth which is neither substantial, essential nor rationalbut exists insofar as it is useful for preserving ways of life; a matter that is reached through the terrain of experience.

Experience

Pragmatism questions the separation that modern philosophy had made between cognition and experience. He says that experience is a process by which we obtain information that helps us to recognize our needs. For this reason, 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 by itself special information, 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 suppose to be caused by external elements, but which, in reality, acquire meaning only at the moment we perceive them through our senses. The experiencer is not a passive agent who only receives external stimuli, he is rather an active agent who interprets them.

This is one of the criticisms of pragmatism: for some, it seems to maintain a skeptical stance towards world events.

Research

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

Rather, these concerns should be oriented toward understanding how we can create methods of inquiry that contribute to the development of a new understanding of a phenomenon. how we can create methods of inquiry 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, i.e., it has the possibility of being verified and weighted.

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

The researcher is a subject who obtains empirical material from experimental interventions, and poses 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 (they are not a transcription of reality) and are intended to achieve a specific purpose: to facilitate an action.

Bibliographical 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. Center for Sociological Research. 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.