Pragmaticism is a term used by Charles Sanders Peirce for his pragmatic
philosophy after 1905, in order to distance himself and it from pragmatism, the original
name, which had been used in a manner he did not approve of in the "literary journals". He said that he coined it because it was
"ugly enough to be safe from kidnappers" (CP 5.414).1
Here is a passage where Peirce explains the distinction:
I proposed that the word "pragmatism" should hereafter be used somewhat loosely to signify affiliation with Schiller, James,
Dewey, Royce, and the rest of us, while the particular doctrine which I invented the word to denote, which is your first kind of
pragmatism, should be called "pragmaticism." The extra syllable will indicate the narrower meaning." (Letter to Calderoni, CP
8.205)
Whether one chooses to call it "pragmatism" or "pragmaticism", and Peirce himself was not
always consistent about it even after the notorious renaming, his conception of pragmatic philosophy is based on one or another
version of the so-called "pragmatic maxim". Here is one of his more emphatic statements
of it:
Pragmaticism was originally enounced2 in the form of a maxim, as follows: Consider what effects, that might
conceivably have practical bearings, you conceive the objects of your conception to have. Then, your
conception of those effects is the whole of your conception of the object (CP 5.438).3
References
- Charles Peirce, "What Pragmatism Is", The
Monist, vol. 15, pp. 161-181 (1905), reprinted in Collected Papers, CP 5.411-437 (1934).
- Charles Peirce, "How to Make Our Ideas Clear", Popular Science Monthly, vol.
12, pp. 286-302 (1878), reprinted in Collected Papers, CP 5.388-410 (1934).
- Charles Peirce, "Issues of Pragmaticism", The Monist, vol. 15, pp. 481-499
(1905), reprinted in Collected Papers, CP 5.438-463 (1934).
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