Pragmatism/Pragmatist Geographies

Abstract

Pragmatism is a philosophy – or more correctly, a way of doing philosophy – which pays attention to the practical consequences rather than the metaphysical origins of ideas. It is an attempt to ground philosophical debate in the conduct and experience of everyday life; to turn philosophy into a practical, problem-solving enterprise with which everyone can, and should, engage. Geographers have drawn more or less explicitly from a pragmatist philosophical orientation since the early 1980s, and likely earlier, sometimes in the sense of deciding what is ‘pragmatic’ to do in researching a given issue or situation, but more importantly in recovering what is and can be taken to be ‘truthful’ knowledge for given communities in given places, as intimately bound up with the specific circumstances and routine practices contextualizing and enacted by these communities in these places. The origins and character of pragmatism are reviewed, spelling out certain core feature of pragmatist argumentation, and then more recent versions of pragmatism, sometimes called ‘neopragmatism’, are examined. The importation of pragmatism into human geography and related disciplines is detailed, and an outline is provided of its various elements and affinities (with other contemporary developments within human geography and beyond). Final comments are offered on critiques of pragmatism and on how they might be countered.