Pragmatism

From Geography

Revision as of 10:47, 10 October 2012

The term derived from the same Greek word 'pragma' what means action (James, 1906). Pragmatism began in the late nineteenth- century as a philosophical movement. Through the beginning of the twentieth century pragmatism was further developed in the works of, among others, William James.

There was an accent on the philosophical action in the practice of everyday life. The concept of truth didn’t emphasize the practical consequences of hypothesis, but more the knowledge behind the action. Knowledge can’t be found in the objective truth, because the process of knowledge takes place in people’s minds. There is no access to it. In science it is therefore difficult to test a hypothesis. We can use the knowledge, but is has to be pragmatically tested. Practical value of what we do determined our opinion of what be true or false. When something works in practice it is true. Pragmatism is about finding the best solution through interaction.

The first followers of the ideas of pragmatism try to look for the ‘accurate representation of reality’ by using knowledge. Rorty, an American philosopher, was suggesting that pragmatism examines the use of ‘knowledge’. This knowledge shouldn't be understood as offering some unobtainable 'accurate representation of reality, but can be described as an ongoing conversation between all of us, in our daily life (Cloke, Philo & Sadler, 1991, p.86). So, not only people who have the knowledge (like students) are important for understanding the reality, but everybody takes part.

Pragmatism in human geography

In 1981, Frazier was the first who used the term pragmatism in geography. The question was: ‘How should geographers research humanistic theory about ‘action roles’ in a pragmatically way?’ (Cloke, Philo & Sadler, 1991, p.86). He found out that human interests, desires, prejudices and group values vary across space. The action roles are influenced by these characteristics. This is why Frazier took seriously the influence of geographical variations in everyday context for both knowledge-creation and knowledge-implementation. Other geographical arguments for the use of pragmatism are on the one hand that knowledge is very important because the knowledge with which human geography deals and which it can meaningfully obtain in practice is itself geographically fragmented, and on the other hand it is suggested that in the absence of 'grand' philosophical guidelines for practice the discipline must (re)gain a sense of moral and political purpose to justify what it's practitioners do in the fields and streets of the world (Cloke, Philo & Sadler, 1991, p.86).

One of the most overlooked familiar figures who had an influence in the evolution of pragmatism is John Dewey. His sights about social epistemology and constructivism gives answers in the quest for an epistemology that supports theories of situated cognition and social constructivism. (Garrison, 1995)

Geography matters, in a very practical way!

References:

Cloke, P., Philo, C. and Sadler, D. (1991) Approaching Human Geography. Chapman, London.

Garrison, J. (1995) Deweyan Pragmatism and the Epistemology of Contemporary Social Constructivism. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Hookway, C (2008). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, Stanford.

James, W. (1906) Lecture II: what pragmatism means. Found 12 september 2012, on http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/james.htm

Published by Christine Hutting and Milou Pollemans --StefanBehlen 12:46, 24 October 2011 (CEST)

Edited by Lotte den Boogert 12 september 2012 Edited by Rens Mennen, 10 October 2012