Pragmatism

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

In Peirce's original formulation pragmatism constitutes the application of the experimental method in the pursuit of knowledge, with hypotheses provisionally verified in practice. This he equated with the formal scientific method. The result of pragmatic inquiry is the best understanding at a given time emerging from within a community of scientists. Peirce insisted that the search for the best evidence must not immobilize the researcher, who may make reasonable inferences from limited evidence, which are always subject to further inquiry. Peirce argued for abduction, a parsimonious search for the best and simplest explanation for a phenomenon through survey of the likely causes, with errors corrected by additional iterations. Peirce submitted that humans were well equipped to derive useful understanding from the limited information inferences of abduction.

James shifted the standard for the determination of provisional truth to subjective and personal value. For James, the crux of provisional truth is what “works” for the individual, the “cash value” of an idea (although this formulation fueled misunderstanding of pragmatism as crassly materialistic). James embraced the will to believe as sufficient to justify the acceptance of religious faith despite the absence of proof, given prospective gains in the quality of life. At the same time, James was a physician who appreciated advances in medical research. In each case, James perceived concrete benefits for individuals. Clearly he valued evidence of varied kinds as guides to decision making and would endorse an eclectic model of research and inquiry.

Dewey reframed pragmatism as the judgment of social (rather than personal) consequences and reconceived science as the core of all human learning, whether of the child or the scientist. He regarded the experimental method, or learning by doing, to be the means by which both children and adults learned everything, from how to walk to arcane science. Dewey's conception of science was democratic, cumulative, collective, and not necessarily linear. He argued for the application of social intelligence, a process of cooperative inquiry incorporating discussion and debate, informed by the observation of cause and effect, means and ends. Rather than exalt the practices of the professional scientist, Dewey noted the potential of the average individual to apply and extend intelligence given necessary resources.

Application

The significance of pragmatism for research methodology is that the pragmatist recognizes that all research is cumulative and yet incomplete and that preliminary judgments must be made with the evidence at hand. A pragmatist methodology embraces trial and error and “brute force” methods, as in mathematics.

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