Pragmatism

Pragmatism is a distinctly American philosophy that aims to uncover practical knowledge—knowledge that works in a particular situation. The acquired knowledge is evaluated by reference to its problem-solving capacity in everyday life rather than its universal applicability, which makes pragmatism a fruitful tool for action researchers.

Pragmatism is better described as a philosophical method for doing rather than a philosophical theory per se. It is not simply a collection of viewpoints about a specific concept, such as truth, identity or reality. Pragmatism concerns how humans should conduct business, as managers, accountants or researchers, whenever engaging in any form of inquiry. In its narrow interpretation, pragmatism is a method of determining the meaning of concepts to show that there is no meaning without practical consequences. All concepts are therefore contextual by nature and have different meanings for different people in different situations. The meaningfulness of knowledge is determined by its ability to solve a practical problem.

As a result, knowledge is seen as a contextual property that evolves through everyday practices and is measured by its practical consequences. Hence, the notion practical knowledge is more appropriate in pragmatism as it reflects the situational creation of knowledge with regard to its problem-solving ability. In the same vein, action researchers view the development of knowledge as part of the daily inquiry process rather than as a monopolistic notion of academics or social scientists.

On a broader level, pragmatism is a method for uncovering contextual truth. For pragmatists, truth is naturally contextual since our knowledge and beliefs about scientific concepts, on which humans base their understanding of the world, are only true as long they bear practical consequences. Truth is provisional; it is the result of ongoing practical inquiry in the form of applying practical knowledge in different situations. Truth is defined by its pragmatic use in ongoing experiences and not in association with the objective qualities of the concept. Truth is the result and goal of inquiry, something that many action researchers would agree with. Inquiry is the reflective and iterative process of solving a particular problem. Throughout the process, consensus about both means and ends has to be established, which results in the co-ordination of thought, knowledge and action.