Contextualism

Description of the Strategy

Contextualism is a pragmatic philosophy that uses the ongoing act in context as its model or root metaphor. Acts of this kind are historical, purposive, and situated. For example, “going to the store” implies a historical reason for going (e.g., not enough food in the house), a current purpose (e.g., needing to make the evening meal), and a situational context (e.g., a place to go from and to, money to make the purchase, time to get there). In psychology, philosophies of science based on contextualistic perspectives lead to approaches that emphasize (a) a focus on the whole event, (b) sensitivity to the role of context in establishing the nature and function of an event, and (c) a pragmatic truth ...