pragmatism

From Ancient Greek stem of πρᾶγμα (prâgma, “act”) + -ism.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹæɡmətɪzəm/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹaɡmətɪzəm/

pragmatism (countable and uncountable, plural pragmatisms)

1. The pursuit of practicality over aesthetic qualities; a concentration on facts rather than emotions or ideals.
2. (philosophy) The idea that beliefs are identified with the actions of a believer, and the truth of beliefs with success of those actions in securing a believer's goals; the doctrine that ideas must be looked at in terms of their practical effects and consequences.
   • 1902, William James, “Lecture XVIII: Philosophy”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 445:

     Our conception of these practical consequences is for us the whole of our conception of the object, so far as that conception has positive significance at all. This is the principle of [Charles Sanders] Peirce, the principle of pragmatism.

3. (politics) The theory that political problems should be met with practical solutions rather than ideological ones.
4. (obsolete) The habit of interfering in other people's affairs; meddlesomeness.

• idealism
• contemplation

• pragmatic
• pragmatically
• pragmatist

Borrowed from French pragmatisme.

pragmatism n (uncountable)

1. pragmatism