PRAGMATISM
182New Testament and subsequent Christian
theology to mean “soul.” It is also used
in Gnostic writings to distinguish those
who had most liberated themselves from
the material world by means of esoteric
knowledge (the pneumatics) from those
who were most in the grip of the material
world (the hylics or somatics).
PRAGMATISM. American philosophi-
cal movement beginning in the mid-
nineteenth century. Although a diverse
philosophical tradition, pragmatists gen-
erally hold that beliefs get their meaning
through their effects on action, that all
thinking is problem solving, and that sci-
entific inquiry provides the model for all
knowledge. These views lead pragmatists
to see beliefs as tools to be maintained as
long as they are conducive to successful
action. Any belief that holds no conse-
quence for action is a meaningless belief.
Pragmatists universally deny any repre-
sentational theory of the mind, any strict
dualism between mind and body or
thought and action, and the intelligibility
of speculating about what transcends
experience. Pragmatists are often dismis-
sive of religion. John Dewey thought it
expressed the unreflective spirit of a peo-
ple at a historical moment and William
James took seriously the way certain forms
of mystical experiences can shape actions,
while denying that mystical experiences
themselves provide evidence of a divine
being. Josiah Royce, James’ colleague at
Harvard and a correspondent with Charles
Sanders Peirce, argued that pragmatist
fallibilism only makes sense if it is supple-
mented with the belief in an Absolute
Knower. He recasts this Absolute in his
later works as an Infinite Community of
Interpretation, toward which, he claims,
Christianity uniquely aspires. Charles
Sanders Peirce, who coined the name
“Pragmatism,” was hostile to creeds and
to theologians in general, but he also held
that evidential atheism and anti-religious
sentiment were both abuses of science
and impediments to human growth.
Classical Pragmatism is most closely
connected to the writings of Charles
Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), William
James (1842–1910), Josiah Royce (1855–
1916), John Dewey (1859–1952), and
George Herbert Mead (1863–1931). Later
Pragmatists of note include Robert
Brandom (1950–), Donald Davidson
(1917–2003), Susan Haack (1945– ), Jürgen
Habermas (1929– ), Joseph Margolis
(1924– ), Richard Rorty (1931–2007), and
Cornel West (1953– ). See also DEWEY;
JAMES; PEIRCE; and ROYCE.PRAYER. On a theistic understanding,
prayer is how people commune with God.
Prayer is also understood to be God-given,
so that in prayer we give back to God the
thoughts, words, or yearnings God has
given to us. In Christianity the Lord’s
Prayer is the ultimate expression of this
dynamic. In the New Testament (Romans
8.26–7; Ephesians 6.18), the Holy Spirit is
said to pray through human beings.