Philosophical Pragmatism

maximally beneficial.

Nonetheless, pragmatism as a determinate philosophical principle comes down from the work of Charles Sanders Pierce. For him, pragmatism was chiefly a theory of meaning, with the connotation of any idea that has function in the real world inherent in the relationships that connect experiential circumstances of application with visible results. But by the ‘practical consequences’ of the recognition of an thought or a debate, Pierce meant the results for experimental practice – ‘experimental effects’ or ‘observational results’ – so that for him the import of a proposition is decided by the fundamentally positivist standard of its experiential results in severely observational terms. And going a step further, Peirce also educated that pragmatic effectiveness comprises a quality control check of human cognition – though here again the practice matter is that of scientific praxis and the criterion of efficacy centering on the matter of particularly predictive success. Peirce built-up his pragmatism in contrast to idealism, observing that the examination of applicative success can direct simple theorizing to stump its toe on the hard rock of truth. But his descendants moderated the principle, until with present-day ‘pragmatists’ the effectiveness of ideas comprises in their simple acceptance by the community rather than in the accomplishment that the community may (or may not!) meet as it sets those views into practice.

Charles Pierce writes:
“Not only may generals be real, but they may also be physically efficient, not in every metaphysical sense, but in the common-sense acception in which human purposes are physically efficient. Aside from metaphysical nonsense, no sane man doubts that if I feel the

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