Pragmatism as a Philosophy :: Skepticism, Rationalism, Metaphysics

I acquit often heard people use the word pragmatic to describe actions, laws or feelings, and I never genuinely gestateed at pragmatism as a philosophy before. As we study this semester I found myself asking unity doubt about each philosophy we cover. We discussed skepticism and the claim that we ease up no knowledge (Lawhead, W., The Philosophical Journey, 2009, p. 55). We compared rationalism and empiricism which posit that we do have knowledge, notwithstanding disagree on whether that knowledge comes from intellect or experience (Lawhead, p. 55). Along with that we covered Kants attempt bridge the gap between rationalism and empiricism, cognise as constructivism (Lawhead, p. 120). We moved on to the different varieties of relativism, and I still found myself asking the same thing. So what? In other words, does any of this really enumerate? Then we got to pragmatism, and I found that it asked the same question. Pragmatism looks for the possible tax of a belief. If I look at the other subjects we have studied pragmatically, I can determine which ideas have the most value to me.Apart from the epistemological philosophies, another area we have also covered is metaphysics. Within metaphysics we have covered dualism and two forms of monism, materialism and idealism. Each of these beliefs deal with what reality actually is. Idealism claims there is one type of reality and that it is mental or eldritch in nature (Lawhead, p. 97). If, as Berkeley claims, matter is a useless concept (Lawhead, p. 206), it would be useless for us to sieve manipulating the world around us. Since we do try to falsify our world, Berkeleys idealism does not work with how we live. It is not practical. The other form of monism, materialism, more specifically physicalism, may hold more practical value than idealism. In materialism, reality is entirely physical (Lawhead, p. 205). Physicalism is a materialist view that the mind can be completely explained by the physical makeup of the head word (Lawhead, p. 214). This has practical value because it leads to the ability to study the mind, and allows the mind to interact with the rest of the world. This form of monism seems to be the more practical of the two, but monism is not the only air to look at reality.Pragmatism as a Philosophy Skepticism, Rationalism, Metaphysics I have often heard people use the word pragmatic to describe actions, laws or feelings, but I never really looked at pragmatism as a philosophy before. As we studied this semester I found myself asking one question about each philosophy we covered. We discussed skepticism and the claim that we have no knowledge (Lawhead, W., The Philosophical Journey, 2009, p. 55). We compared rationalism and empiricism which posit that we do have knowledge, but disagree on whether that knowledge comes from intellect or experience (Lawhead, p. 55). Along with that we covered Kants attempt bridge the gap b etween rationalism and empiricism, known as constructivism (Lawhead, p. 120). We moved on to the different varieties of relativism, and I still found myself asking the same thing. So what? In other words, does any of this really matter? Then we got to pragmatism, and I found that it asked the same question. Pragmatism looks for the practical value of a belief. If I look at the other subjects we have studied pragmatically, I can determine which ideas have the most value to me.Apart from the epistemological philosophies, another area we have also covered is metaphysics. Within metaphysics we have covered dualism and two forms of monism, materialism and idealism. Each of these beliefs deal with what reality actually is. Idealism claims there is one type of reality and that it is mental or spiritual in nature (Lawhead, p. 97). If, as Berkeley claims, matter is a useless concept (Lawhead, p. 206), it would be useless for us to try manipulating the world around us. Since we do try to mani pulate our world, Berkeleys idealism does not work with how we live. It is not practical. The other form of monism, materialism, more specifically physicalism, may hold more practical value than idealism. In materialism, reality is entirely physical (Lawhead, p. 205). Physicalism is a materialist view that the mind can be completely explained by the physical makeup of the brain (Lawhead, p. 214). This has practical value because it leads to the ability to study the mind, and allows the mind to interact with the rest of the world. This form of monism seems to be the more practical of the two, but monism is not the only way to look at reality.