Pragmatism in philosophy arose in the 70s of the XIX century, the main ideas of the trend were expressed by Charles Pierce. Pragmatists believed that they completely reformed philosophy, abandoning its basic principles and deciding to use their own approach to the consideration of human life. The fundamental idea of the flow is a practical attitude to the life of each individual. Pragmatism in philosophy, in short, suggests not spending time solving theoretical problems that have nothing to do with reality, but being interested only in human, pressing problems and considering everything from the point of view of one’s own profit.
As mentioned above, the founder of the movement was Charles Pierce. It is important to note that his philosophical teaching is not limited solely to pragmatism and its justification. Pierce says that thinking is necessary solely to develop a sustainable belief, that is, a conscious willingness to act in one way or another in each case. Cognition in his philosophy is not a transition from ignorance to knowledge, but a movement from doubt to firm belief. Pierce believes that belief is true if an action based on it leads to an appropriate practical result. The so-called "Pierce principle" defines the whole pragmatism in philosophy, the whole essence of human ideas is limited to real (practical) results that can be extracted from them. Also from the teachings of Pierce follow three main ideas of the direction:
- thinking is the achievement of subjective psychological satisfaction;
- truth is that which manifests itself in the form of a practical result;
- things are a combination of practical consequences.
William James, a follower of Pierce's ideas, says that everyone has their own philosophy. The reality is multifaceted, and each individual has his own way of perceiving it, and the combination of all these methods leads to the creation of a pluralistic picture of the world. Truth is that which, more than anything else, approaches a specific life situation and most closely matches the experience of each individual person. Pragmatism in the philosophy of James also takes as a basis the perception of truth as something that has a practical embodiment. His famous quote: "Truth is a credit card that is valid only under certain conditions."
The pragmatism of John Dewey considers contemporary Western philosophy to be the teaching of the entire direction that has had the greatest impact on the United States. Dewey claimed to be creating a philosophy of a democratic society. He developed a theory of scientific research, but at the same time, science in his teaching is only a method by which people take the most optimal actions. Objective knowledge of the world is impossible. Cognition is the active intervention of the subject in the research process, an experiment on an object. Thinking is used to solve problem situations. Reality is created in the process of scientific research. Various products of society (laws, ideas) do not reflect reality, but serve to obtain practical benefits in a particular situation.
