different between pragmatism vs pragmatic

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p?æ?m?t?z?m/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?a?m?t?z?m/

Noun

pragmatism (countable and uncountable, plural pragmatisms)

1. The pursuit of practicality over aesthetic qualities; a concentration on facts rather than emotions or ideals.
2. (politics) The theory that political problems should be met with practical solutions rather than ideological ones.
3. (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, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Folio Society 2008, p. 378:

     Our conception of these practical consequences is for us the whole of our conception of the object [...] This is the principle of Peirce, the principle of pragmatism.

4. The habit of interfering in other people's affairs; meddlesomeness.

Antonyms

• idealism
• contemplation

Related terms

• pragmatic
• pragmatically
• pragmatist

Translations

Romanian

Etymology

From French pragmatisme

Noun

pragmatism n (uncountable)

1. pragmatism

Declension

English

Alternative forms

• pragmatick (archaic)
• pragmatique (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle French pragmatique, from Late Latin pragmaticus (“relating to civil affair; in Latin, as a noun, a person versed in the law who furnished arguments and points to advocates and orators, a kind of attorney”), from Ancient Greek ??????????? (pragmatikós, “active, versed in affairs”), from ?????? (prâgma, “a thing done, a fact”), in plural ???????? (prágmata, “affairs, state affairs, public business, etc.”), from ?????? (práss?, “to do”) (whence English practical).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?æ??mæt?k/

Adjective

pragmatic (comparative more pragmatic, superlative most pragmatic)

1. Practical, concerned with making decisions and actions that are useful in practice, not just theory.

   The sturdy furniture in the student lounge was pragmatic, but unattractive.

   • Nor indeed are these restrictions pragmatic in nature: i.e. the ill-formedness of the heed-sentences in (60) is entirely different in kind from the oddity of sentences like:
     (61) !That man will eat any car which thinks he?s stupid
     which is purely pragmatic (i.e. lies in the fact that (61) describes the kind of bizarre situation which just doesn?t happen in the world we are familiar with, where cars don?t think, and people don?t eat cars).

2. Philosophical; dealing with causes, reasons, and effects, rather than with details and circumstances; said of literature.
3. Interfering in the affairs of others; officious; meddlesome.

Synonyms

• (practical): down-to-earth, functional, practical, utilitarian, realistic

Antonyms

• idealistic

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

pragmatic (plural pragmatics)

1. A man of business.
2. A busybody.
3. A public decree.

Further reading

• pragmatic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• pragmatic in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• "pragmatic" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 240.

Romanian

Etymology

From French pragmatique.

Adjective

pragmatic m or n (feminine singular pragmatic?, masculine plural pragmatici, feminine and neuter plural pragmatice)

1. pragmatic

Declension