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

Pragmatism is the philosophical stance that defends that a philosophical and scientific knowledge can only be considered true based on its practical consequences. This position emerges between the cultural atmosphere and the metaphysical concerns of intellectuals Americans in the nineteenth century, and reached its peak within the philosophical currents that reacted to positivism.

Currently, pragmatism is a widely used and widespread concept not only in philosophy, but in many areas of social life, including begins to be identified as a philosophical attitude, with which we can say that its postulates have been transformed and applied in many ways different. Next we will do a very general review of its history and some key concepts.

• Related article: "How are Psychology and Philosophy alike?"

What is pragmatism?

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

It is developed mainly under the proposals of Charles Sanders Peirce (who considers himself 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.

Come the 20th century, his influence declined in an important way. However, it regained popularity around the 1970s, thanks to 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 (that is, 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 generate knowledge that is practical and useful for these purposes.

In other words, the maxim of pragmatism is that hypotheses must be drawn according to what would be their practical consequences. This suggestion has had repercussions on more specific concepts and ideas, for example, in the definition of 'the truth ', in how to define the starting point of the investigation, and in the understanding and importance of our experiences.

The truth

What pragmatism does is stop paying attention to the substance, the essence, the absolute truth or the nature of the phenomena, to attend to their practical results. Thus, scientific and philosophical thought no longer have the purpose of knowing 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 conservation of certain ways of life, and it serves to ensure that we will have the necessary tools to adapt to them. Philosophy and scientific knowledge have one main purpose: detect and satisfy needs.

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

In contrast to other proposals of philosophy (especially Cartesian skepticism that doubted experience because it relied fundamentally on the rational), pragmatism posits an idea of ​​truth that is not substantial, essential, or rationalRather, it exists insofar as it is useful to conserve ways of life; question that is reached through the field 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 information that helps us recognize our needs. Therefore, 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 information by itself special, but we acquire that information when we come into contact with the outside world (when we interact and we experience).

Thus, our thinking is built when we experience things that we assume are caused by the elements. externalities, but which, in reality, make sense only at the moment in which we perceive them through our senses. Whoever experiences is not a passive agent that only receives external stimuli, it is rather an active agent that interprets them.

From here has derived one of the criticisms of pragmatism: for some it seems to maintain a skeptical stance towards world events.

The investigation

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

Rather, these concerns should be geared toward understanding how we can create research methods that help make a certain 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 pondered.

From this it follows that the scientific method is par excellence the experimental method, and the material is empirical. Likewise, investigations begin with raising a problem in the face of a situation that is indeterminate, that is, the investigation serves to replace doubts with well-founded, established 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 specific 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 action.

Bibliographic references:

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2013). Pragmatism. Retrieved May 3, 2018. Available in https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pragmatism/#PraMax
• Sini, C. (1999). Pragmatism. Akal: Madrid.
• Jos, H. (1998). Pragmatism and the theory of society. Sociological Research Center. Retrieved May 3, 2018. Available in 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.