PRAGMATISM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does pragmatism mean? 

• PRAGMATISM (noun)
  The noun PRAGMATISM has 2 senses:

1. (philosophy) the doctrine that practical consequences are the criteria of knowledge and meaning and value

2. the attribute of accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth

  Familiarity information: PRAGMATISM used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRAGMATISM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(philosophy) the doctrine that practical consequences are the criteria of knowledge and meaning and value

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("pragmatism" is a kind of...):

philosophical doctrine; philosophical theory (a doctrine accepted by adherents to a philosophy)

Domain category:

philosophy (the rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pragmatism"):

instrumentalism (a system of pragmatic philosophy that considers idea to be instruments that should guide our actions and their value is measured by their success)

Derivation:

pragmatic; pragmatical (of or concerning the theory of pragmatism)

pragmatist (an adherent of philosophical pragmatism)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The attribute of accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

pragmatism; realism

Hypernyms ("pragmatism" is a kind of...):

practicality (concerned with actual use rather than theoretical possibilities)

Derivation:

pragmatic (concerned with practical matters)

pragmatic (guided by practical experience and observation rather than theory)

pragmatical (concerned with practical matters)

pragmatist (a person who takes a practical approach to problems and is concerned primarily with the success or failure of her actions)

pragmatist (an adherent of philosophical pragmatism)