Pragmatic Realism

The viewpoint that there is a mind-independent reality, but our access to it and our descriptions of it are always mediated by our practical interests, cognitive tools, and languages. Therefore, "truth" is the set of beliefs that, at a given time, best enables us to cope with and predict the behavior of that reality. It's a realism tempered by pragmatism: the world is real, but our maps of it are judged by how well they help us travel.

Pragmatic Realism Example: A Pragmatic Realist scientist believes quarks are real features of the universe, not just useful fictions. However, they also acknowledge that our "quark" model is a human construct that works stunningly well for prediction and engineering. If a better, more useful model emerges, they would abandon the old one, confident we are getting closer to the reality, but never claiming to have the final, perfect picture.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 3, 2026

Pragmatism of Fallacies

The strategic, conscious use of known logical fallacies because they are effective in achieving a desired real-world outcome (persuasion, mobilization, simplification) within a specific audience or context, even while acknowledging they are formally invalid. It treats fallacies as tools in a rhetorical toolkit, to be used when the goal is influence, not truth-preserving debate. It's rhetoric over logic, impact over integrity.

Pragmatism of Fallacies Example: A political campaign using the Bandwagon Fallacy ("Everyone is voting for Candidate A, join the winning team!") is employing the Pragmatism of Fallacies. They know it's not a logical argument about the candidate's merits, but they also know it works on human psychology to drive turnout and create momentum, so they use it as a calculated tool.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 3, 2026

Logical Pragmatism

A philosophical approach that judges the validity of ideas, arguments, and beliefs primarily by their practical consequences and usefulness in navigating the world, rather than by their abstract, formal logical purity or their correspondence to an absolute "truth." If a belief leads to successful prediction, effective action, or psychological well-being, it holds pragmatic value, even if it contains logical imperfections or is unprovable in a closed system.

Example: Believing in free will, despite philosophical debates about determinism, is Logical Pragmatism. The belief has immense practical consequences—it underpins our systems of law, morality, and personal motivation. Even if it's logically fuzzy, it's useful and thus, for a pragmatist, holds a form of validity that a perfectly logical but paralyzing belief in absolute determinism does not.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 3, 2026