Pragmatism and Practical Rationality

Nicholas Rescher

Pragmatism views theory as embedded in our practices, and develops a normative methodology for evaluating our purposes. Neither theory nor practice are more fundamental: we evaluate practices for efficiently reaching ends, and we re-evaluate ends in light of the possible pursuits appropriate for flourishing human beings. Pragma- tism’s philosophical anthropology rejects the Humean prioritization of instrumentalist reason. Practical reason encompasses theoretical reasoning, without reducing truth to what is useful. While our warranted conclusions from inquiry are our only criterion for truth, the objective success of our practices and inquiries depend on inter- acting with nature, not on thought alone.

1. Functionalistic Pragmatism

Pragmatism is an approach to philosophy that puts practice at center stage and sees efficacy in practical activities as a prime goal of human endeavor. But there are two markedly different ways of working out this sort of program. One way of implementing the idea of pragmatism is to see theory and theorizing as being incidental and secondary in importance — a ‘merely intellectual’ concern that has a less significant role in human affairs than do matters of action and praxis. This version of the position might be character- ized as practicalism. However, a quite different version of pragmatism sees theory as subordinate to praxis not in importance but rather in fundamentality. This approach does not relegate theory to a secondary status in point of interest or importance. On the contrary, it regards theory as something crucial and critically important, but then takes success in matters of practical implementation as the adequacy criterion of successful theorizing. This criteriological version of the theory might be designated as functionalism. Such a functionalistic version of pragmatism regards effective praxis as the arbiter of appropriate theorizing. It takes considerations of purposive effectiveness to provide the test-standard for the adequacy of the operative 44 NICHOLAS RESCHER principles of human endeavor ⎯ alike in theoretical and in practical matters. Effective implementation is its pervasive standard of adequacy. After all, pragmatism’s historic concern has always been not with the descriptive characteristics of things but with their normative appropriateness. And here its logical starting point is the uncontroversial idea that the natural and sensible standard of approval for something that is in any way procedural — anything that has an aspect that is methodological, functional, instrumental — lies in the question of its successful application. Anything that has a teleo- logy, an instrumentality for the realization of certain purposes, will auto- matically stand subject to an evaluation standard that looks to its efficacy. For whenever something is in any way purposively oriented to the realization of certain ends, the natural question for its evaluation in this regard is that of its serviceability in end-realization. The close connection between functional efficacy and rationality must be stressed in this context. In any context where the meeting of needs and/or the realization of goals is at issue, a rational creature will prefer whatever method process or procedure will, other things equal, facilitate goal realization in the most effective, efficient, and economical way. In this way economic rationality is a definitive dimension of rationality-in-general and it thereby endows functional efficacy with a normative aspect.

2. The Ramification of Purpose

Man is a purposive animal. Virtually everything that we do has a purpose to it. Even play, idleness, and tomfoolery has a purpose; to divert, to provide rest and recreation, to kill time. Certainly our larger projects in the realm of human endeavor are purposive:

inquiry: to resolve doubt and to guide action.

ethics: to encourage modes of conduct in human interactions that canalize these into a generally satisfactory and beneficial form.

law: to establish and enforce rules of conduct.

education: to acculturate the younger generation so as to enhance the prospect that young people will find their way to personally satisfying and communally beneficial lifestyles.

art: to create objects or object types exposure to which engenders personally rewarding and enlightening experiences.