Pragmatism is a way of thinking that judges ideas mainly by how well they work in practice. In philosophy, it’s a movement that sees truth as something tested and shaped by real-world consequences.
“Pragmatism” is built from “pragmatic” plus the noun-forming suffix *-ism*. It grew as a named philosophical movement in the late 19th century, especially in American philosophy.
In pragmatism, a belief isn’t truly “true” unless it proves itself useful over time in experience. This shifts truth from being a frozen fact to being more like a living contract between ideas and reality.
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